Olivia Rodrigo Talks About the Pressure of Fame and Her New Music
Olivia Rodrigo has been open about the immense pressure she faced while creating her first two albums. Known for her role in the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, she gained widespread recognition in 2021 after releasing her award-winning single Driver’s Licence. In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, the 23-year-old singer shared her experiences of feeling like the “whole world was watching” after the success of that track.
Rodrigo reflected on how the pressure made it challenging to follow up on her initial success. She described the creation of her debut album Sour as a rushed process. “We didn’t have time for revisions on Sour. The whole world was watching. I wrote and we just f** recorded and put it out,” she said. The album topped the UK albums chart and earned her the Best Pop Vocal Album and Best New Artist Grammy in 2022.
She admitted that at the time, she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. “I was so young then and felt like the world was on my shoulders and that I had to have everything together. I was motivated, but there was fear. Now I feel a lot more self-assured. My passion and work ethic come from a place of positivity rather than a scared mindset.”
The Pressure Behind Guts
Rodrigo also spoke about her second album, Guts, and the pressure she felt during its creation. “With Guts, I was under so much pressure, like, ‘Oh my god, I’m never going to be able to make another good song.’ It wasn’t even making music to make music. It was making music to please people or prove something,” she explained.
The US pop star also opened up about her anxiety early in her career, which she described as a “trial by fire.” “I’m serving anxious forever. I was really nervous the first 10 shows of the Guts tour. It was hard to be away from home and not have any sense of normalcy. I was freaking out; my nervous system was crashing out. I still get anxious. It’s just different than when I was younger.”
A New Era of Joy
Rodrigo recently released her latest single, Drop Dead, from her eagerly awaited third album – You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love – which will be released this summer. Reflecting on her new record, she told Cosmopolitan that she had “so much joy” with her songwriting process. “I was really excited to write about joy, love and passion in a way that I had never really done. Most of my big songs are about being sad, angry, heartbroken.”
She added that the album went through extensive editing. “We really edited the hell out of this album. There was so much more joy in the songwriting. There are some songs that are plain old sad but also some songs that are just plain old fun.”
Rodrigo also mentioned that she sometimes finds it “cringier” to write about being happy. “I cringe, but I’m free. All of my favourite love songs have an element of sadness, and that’s what makes them so beautiful. A great love song has so much emotion behind it that it could go either way. I want to make love songs that you can cry to.”
