“Drivers license” dazzles

Olivia Rodrigo starts her solo musical career with an extraordinary success

The lyrical masterpiece, “drivers license”by 17-year-old Disney star, Olivia Rodrigo, exploded the music charts, filled people’s eyes with tears, and gave the world a small glimpse into a love triangle – it also led to much drama and speculation.

In its first three days after its US release, the song sold over 16,000 digital downloads and received more than 21 million streams. It also broke the Spotify record for most one-day streams for a non-holiday song. This is very impressive considering that Rodrigo had not yet established herself as a lone artist.

“drivers license” tells the story of a girl getting her drivers license, but the boy that she was in love with who taught her how to drive is not there anymore. With lyrics like, “But today I drove through the suburbs / Crying ‘cause you weren’t around,” Rodrigo really lets fans into the sorrow that she is experiencing.

The song is written very literally – allowing fans to get the full picture of the breakup between Rodrigo and High School Musical: The Musical: The series co-star, Joshua Bassett. Fans were intrigued and left heart broken by the lyrics, “And I know we weren’t perfect / But I’ve never felt this way for no one / And I just can’t imagine how you could be so okay now that I’m gone / Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me / ‘Cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street.”

Bassett posted the song on his Instagram Story complimenting Rodrigo saying, “such a great song! Congrats @olivia.rodrigo.”

With the making of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 2, fans are curious how the on-screen relationship between Rodrigo and Bassett will play out now that there is this painful and sort of petty love triangle taking place.

Fans had been speculating about the relationship between Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter for quite a long time, as they had been seen together a lot in the media. Rodrigo confirms this by singing, “And you’re probably with that blonde girl / Who always made doubt / She’s so much older than me / She’s everything I’m insecure about.” Through those lyrics, Rodrigo conveys admiration for Carpenter, the blonde 21-year-old singer and actress.

Rodrigo was met with the release of two other singles, one by Bassett and one by Carpenter. Some fans believe that this release was planned by the artists to gain media and traction for their songs, while others believe that Bassett and Carpenter’s responses were petty and rude.

Bassett’s song, “Lie Lie Lie,” was allegedly in the works for a year and it was just a coincidence that Rodrigo had released a song the week before. With lyrics like, “You’ve been lying to yourself / Lie to everyone else / Only thinking about yourself / Darling what the hell,” it seems like he could be speaking right to Rodrigo.

Carpenter’s song, “Skin,”has very direct lyrics: “Maybe you didn’t mean it / Maybe blonde was the only rhyme;” referring directly at Rodrigo’s lyrics (which didn’t even rhyme with blonde). With other lyrics like, “You can try / To get under my, under my, under my skin / While he’s all mine,” Rodrigo’s fans are furious, as they believe Carpenter is responding unfairly because “drivers license”admires her, rather than tearing her down.

Although the drama surrounding these songs has taken over the internet, we are all excited to see what Rodrigo will do next, as she is just at the start of her music career.