Things You Didn't Know About Olivia Rodrigo

At the time of this writing, Olivia Rodrigo's debut album hasn't even finished out its first week, but its overwhelming success is undeniable. Four days after "Sour" was released, Billboard announced that the album's third single, "Good 4 U," had become Rodrigo's second No. 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 (the first was "Drivers License," and though "Deja Vu" did chart, it debuted at No. 8). Thus, another record was broken. "Sour" became the first ever debut album to have "two No. 1 Hot 100 debuts." As Billboard points out, the only other artists to come close were Mariah Carey, Drake, and Ariana Grande — but they did it on their fifth albums, not their first.

Weirdly enough, "Sour" almost never happened at all. When Rodrigo initially released "Drivers License," she had only planned to make an EP. "I had an EP ready, like five or six songs," she told the BBC. "Then 'Drivers License' came out and I was like, 'I'm just not super-proud of this.'"

Rodrigo decided to add to her existing body of work, pulling overtime while filming the "High School Musical" series in Salt Lake City. She'd write new songs in her downtime, then trade files with Nigro, who was back in his Los Angeles studio. Eventually, "Sour" was born — a true product of modern technology, both in how the album was written and how its meteoric success played out on TikTok.

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