Who is Olivia Rodrigo, the heiress of Taylor Swift who marks her own course and dominates the global charts

On Sunday night March 23 at the Lollapalooza Argentina was wet and electric. Thousands of compressed bodies in the Pasto of the San Isidro racecourse, cell phones, the murmur prior to the outbreak. It was almost ten when it appeared on stage Olivia Rodrigo. A red leather set and a guitar. There was no presentation: a look at the public was enough so that the first obsessed notes would detonate the choirs of more than 85,000 people. The Californian artist, who was once a star of Disneyhe demonstrated in Buenos Aires why he has become one of the most influential figures – and profitable – of the contemporary music industry.

For four years, Olivia Rodrigo is one of the undisputed protagonists of the global music business. He has not new material since September 2023, but still dominates the charts, exhausts stadiums and leads cultural conversations. This week, without any recent launch, its two albums —Sour and Guts – appear in the most listened to the United Kingdom album raks: Sour occupies the 29th place, Guts on 27. In the streaming list, they reach 28 and 25 respectively. In the United States, Sour appears in the 57th position of the Billboard 200. It has been 200 weeks uninterrupted in the Chart. They are figures that speak not only of success, but of permanence. Rodrigo has achieved what few post-pandemic artists: capture the sustained attention of a hyperstimulated generation.

He was born in Temecula, California, in 2003. American and German roots, and Filipino-State Father, Rodrigo grew between piano classes, Disney sets and recordings of High School musical: The musical: The Series. In that environment of calibrated scripts and measures notes, he began writing his first songs. His great irruption came in January 2021. License drivershis simple debut, became an immediate phenomenon: he debuted in the number one of the Billboard Hot 100, beat streaming records and cemented his emotional chronicler profile of generation Z. The song did not talk about teenage love in abstract, but of an intimate pain, with name and surname just veiled by pop fiction. The audience not only listened to it. He felt reflected.

That same year Sour launched, an eleven song album that achieved a remarkable balance between vulnerability, anger and melodic hooks. The album was triple platinum in the United States and sold more than 16.8 million adjusted global units. All their tracks – all – were certified as platinum or superiors by the Riaa (Recording Industry Association of America). “I never thought people would like to hear my sad songs,” Rodrigo said in an interview with Vogue. “But apparently, that was exactly what we all needed at that time.”

Sour earned him seven Grammy nominations, of which he won three: Best New Artist, Best Vocal Pop Album and Best Solist pop interpretation. Beyond the awards, the album redefined the sound and tone of youth pop of the decade. It was not a continuation of what Taylor Swift had done – although the comparisons are inevitable – but a synthesis of multiple references: the confessional tear of folklore, the novelty roughness of Alanis, the melodic sarcasm of Lorde, the emotional urgency of Fiona Apple.

In September 2023, Olivia Guts launched, his second study work, produced – as the first – by Dan Nigro. The album did not try to replicate the previous model, but to push it. It was more ironic, more noisy, more challenging. “I spent a lot of time wondering what I had to say,” he said in The New York Times. “Guts was my attempt to respond to that.” The first cut, vampire, also debuted in the number one of Hot 100. With that, Rodrigo became the first artist in the story to debut with the main singles of his first two albums at the top of the ranking.

The economic impact does not remain in streaming figures. The Guts World Tour has been a global phenomenon. With tickets exhausted in enclosures such as Madison Square Garden, the O2 Arena de London and other emblematic stadiums, the tour has raised more than 100 million dollars to date, according to Live Nation estimates. His show in Buenos Aires, however, was the most massive of his still young story.

Rodrigo also heads lists in Spotifywhere it accumulates more than 69 million monthly listeners, and their videos exceed 4.5 billion views on YouTube. All without having released a new single in almost 18 months.

But she is not just a hits machine. It has a clear political position. In July 2022, after the ruling of the United States Supreme Court that revoked the constitutional right to abortion, he took the stage of the Glastonbury Festival, in England, along with Lily Allen and dedicated the song F ** You* to the judges responsible for the decision. “I am devastated and terrified that so many women and so many girls are going to die for this,” he said, in a broken voice. It was one of the most important scenarios in the world. And she didn’t shut up. In 2021, she had also been invited to the White House as part of a campaign to foster youth vaccination. His public profile – articulate, empathetic, firm – challenges the idea of ​​pop as depolitized space.

This month in Buenos Aires, in his show in Lollapalooza, Olivia closed with Get Him Back!, Under a rain of violet lights, after having made an unexpected version of Don’s Speakthe non -Doubt classic. It was a subtle but meaning gesture: a tribute to a woman artist who also translated anguish in global success. Rodrigo, who is just 22 years old, is already owned by an inheritance that begins to delineate.

Some analysts have compared their model with that of Taylor Swiftby self -referential narrative, creative control and commercial expansion. But Rodrigo operates with a different logic. He has not built an image of off -road businesswoman, nor launches re -records, nor is it committed to excess visibility. Its strategy seems more spaced, more focused on the emotional weight of each new piece. Less volume, more impact.

The comparisons between Rodrigo and Swift are inevitable, not only because of the confessional tone of their lyrics, but because of the way they managed to mold their artistic narrative since adolescence. Rodrigo has publicly mentioned his admiration for Swift on numerous occasions; He even described the author of folklore as “his greatest inspiration.

But that admiration was transformed into sensitive field when, in 2021, Rodrigo retroactively granted authorship credits to Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent for similarities in the interpolation of cruel Summer in his song Deja Vu. The legal adjustment included a significant percentage of royalties, and was seen as an alert signal for young artists that absorb without fear the melodic structures of their idols. Rodrigo recognized the gesture without public confrontation, but the situation marked a crack.

Since then, rumors about a growing rivalry have intensified. In the Grammy of 2024, media such as Page Six highlighted the coldness between them, with Swift applauding scarcely during Rodrigo’s performance. Nearby sources cited by Variety suggest that the personal relationship between the two has cooled considerably, although there are no public statements that confirm an enmity.

The truth is that Rodrigo, without denying his stylistic heritage, has taken creative distance. “I am very fan of many people, but I want to find my own voice,” he said in an interview. In an industry where the lineage matters, Rodrigo seems to be “The next Taylor Swift” to definitely become Olivia Rodrigo.

Today, Rodrigo is not in “promotion mode.” There are no new album ads or immediate releases. Even so, his songs continue to grow in listening, his albums are repositioned week by week, and his tour continues to deplete functions. In a saturated market, where attention is fleeting and novelty is everything, Rodrigo has managed to build his own ecosystem. A space where pain becomes a story, and the story in industry. Where a young woman with guitar can transform a full stadium into a shared room.