Taylor Swift is “really proud” her “baby” Olivia Rodrigo after the 17-year-old singer climbed up the iTunes charts with her debut song, “Drivers License”. On January 8, Olivia took to Instagram to share her reaction after she found her song right below Tay’s new deluxe Evermore tracks on the iTunes chart. She wrote, “next to Taylor on the U.S. iTunes chart i’m in a puddle of tears,” alongside a screen-grab that showed “Drivers License” at No. 3, behind the Grammy-winner’s “Right Where You Left Me” and “It’s Time To Go” tracks.
Taylor caught wind of Olivia’s post and commented with, “I say that’s my baby and I’m really proud.” — A phrase that’s used by Swifties (Taylor’s beloved fans) on social media after Taylor’s mom, Andrea said the quote in a past interview. — P.S. Olivia is a well-documented Swiftie. Learn more about the rising star with these 5 facts, below:
1. Olivia is a Disney star, singer/song-writer and actress from Temecula, California. — She is known for her roles as Paige Olvera on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark (three seasons) and Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which she currently stars in. In 2015, before she landed the lead in HSMTMTS, Olivia played the lead role of Grace Thomas in the direct-to-video film An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success.
2. Fans believe she’s in a relationship triangle with Sabrina Carpenter & Joshua Bassett. — There’s strong speculation that Olivia’s debut song “Driver’s License” is about her rumored ex-boyfriend (and current High School Musical Series co-star, Joshua) and the longtime Disney star. Why? — Fans specifically pointed out the following lyrics, which they claim describe Sabrina: “And you’re probably with that blonde girl / who always made me doubt / She’s so much older than me / She’s everything I’m insecure about.”
Fans also pointed out that Olivia changed the lyrics from “brunette” to “blonde” from an earlier version of the track she shared to Instagram in 2020. For reference, Sabrina, 21, is older than Olivia by three years. More recently, Joshua, 20, has been spending time with Sabrina (they’ve been linked since June 2020) which led fans to believe he’s moved on from Olivia. Though, the High School Musical stars have never confirmed a romance.
In another part of her latest track, Olivia sings, “Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me.” For his part, Joshua released the song, “Anyone Else” in July 2020. During an interview about the track, he explained to Broadway World (that same month) that he wrote the song after realizing “that I was hopelessly falling in love with a close friend … who was in a relationship with someone else.”
3. Olivia signed her first record deal in 2020. — The rising star teamed up with Geffen Records in 2020, which released her debut single, “Drivers License” in January 2021. The song debuted in the top 5 on iTunes in its first week.
4. She’s been involved in music since a young age. — Olivia took voice lessons as a kindergartener and eventually piano lessons, according to her IMDb bio, which adds that at age 12, she began playing guitar and writing songs. Olivia even wrote the song, “All I Want” for HSMTMTS.
5. As for what’s next for Olivia? — “Figuring out what I want my own music to sound like has been hella challenging but so much fun,” she said on her official website. “I still write songs in my bedroom almost everyday too. I learn more about myself and songwriting everyday, and I think that’s so fun. I feel really lucky. I’m so stoked for the future and I feel so grateful that I get to make songs and call it work.” Olivia is currently putting the finishing touches on her first EP.