This morning at dawn, young actress and singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo blessed ears all across the globe by releasing her heart-wrenching debut pop single entitled ‘drivers license’.
With a unique, powerful voice and a songwriting style reminiscent of Taylor Swift and Lorde, it is inspiring to see a girl (who’s barely old enough to have her own driver’s license) achieve what must be one of the most flawless pop music debuts of this century. The 17 year-old Disney star simultaneously captures the purity of youth and the sophisticated feelings of failed romance through lyrics like “You said forever, now I drive alone past your street”. She makes it seem so effortless.
‘Drivers license’ bears a nostalgic pop ballad melody which Olivia performs with her strikingly impressive vocal range. We’ve listened to her sing innumerable times before- whether it’s been self-written solos on her Disney+ series ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’, or short Instagram clips of her with a keyboard and a guitar in her room- but never like this.
Rodrigo’s 2019 song ‘All I Want’ (from the soundtrack of ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’) earned her a spot in the Billboard Hot 100 chart and a gold US certification last year. Considering the popularity of her debut single so far, which has reached over one million streams within the initial 18 hours of its release, ‘drivers license’ seems to be rightfully heading for similar, or even greater, success.
The perfect way to start a new year, ‘drivers license’ is truly the song for crying in the car, and is an exciting glimpse into Olivia Rodrigo’s shining future.
