17 million plays in 24 hours. This is the impressive score that the American singer Olivia Rodrigo, 17, collected, thus winning the title of ” most streamed song in one day in Spotify history », Tuesday January 12th. How to explain this unexpected success?
Who is Olivia Rodrigo?
Olivia Rodrigo is a 17-year-old American actress and singer. She first became known through her role in the children’s series Frankie and Paige, broadcast on Disney Channel between 2016 and 2019. From 2019, her popularity took off when she landed the first role in the series High School Musical: The Musical, shot as a mock documentary and available on the Disney + platform. We follow the path of a troop of high school students from East High (the establishment where the three original films High School Musical were shot in the 2000s), who decide to adapt, in their own way, a famous musical: High School Musical in its season 1, then The beauty and the Beast in season 2. Olivia Rodrigo plays one of the main roles, that of the young “Nini” Salazar-Roberts.
In January 2020, with the song « All I Want », recorded on behalf of the series, the teenager lands in 90th place in the famous top 100 de Billboard. A few months later, she signed a contract with Geffen Records, a label owned by Universal. But it’s his single unveiled a few days ago, « Drivers license », which becomes his very first hit. Monday, January 11, the song becomes the most streamed in one day in the history of Spotify (excluding Christmas songs), with no less than 11.5 million plays in 24 hours. Before beating his own record the next day, with this time 17 million plays. The song is also in the top 10 of dozens of countries on other platforms such as Apple Music. On YouTube, the clip is similarly successful with some 25 million views in 7 days.
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How to explain its success?
Not easy, for those who do not follow the news of social networks closely, to understand the emergence of Olivia Rodrigo. Once is not customary, it is in particular to the platform of short videos TikTok that the young American owes the success of her song. Taken on a loop for a week by thousands of Internet users who use it as a background sound to stage themselves, the tube made a spectacular start there before spreading more widely. In the image, in 2020, already cult « Supalonely » (BENEE and Gus Dapperton) or even « Boss Bitch » (Doja Cat).
Particularity, however, of “Drivers license”: the small aura of mystery that surrounds the lyrics of the song. According to the most in-depth analyzes (or the most conspiratorial, it is according to), the tube would in fact be a disguised message addressed to the actor Joshua Basset, his partner in High School Musical: The Musical, with whom she would have broken up last year. Nothing confirms or disproves the hypothesis for the time being, speculation is rife. The only certainty is that the theme of disappointment in love is at the heart of all the verses: ” I got my driver’s license last week / Just like we always talked about / Because you were so enthusiastic / That at last I will drive you home / But today I drove in the suburbs / Crying because you weren’t there ».
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