The rise and rise of teen pop star Olivia Rodrigo

Pop music's teenage sensation, Olivia Rodrigo, is in a good place right now. Her singles are topping the charts and her debut album, Sour, is getting rave reviews.

Yet the songs come from a not-so-happy place.

Now 18, she wrote the songs a year ago, fuelled by the confusion and drama that come with the messy business of relationships and teenage life.

"I wrote Sour mostly when I was 17, so it is sort of just a slice of my 17-year-old life and about all of the sadness, anger, jealousy and insecurity I felt in that period of my life," the Filipino-American singer says in a recent Zoom conference with South-east Asian media.

"We tried to, like, put love songs on the record or more happy, upbeat songs, and it just didn't feel right to me.

"It didn't resonate with my experience and so I think by staying true to what I was feeling, it sort of created that."

She was fielding the conference from an Airbnb location in London, where she performed at the 2021 Brit Awards.

Dressed in a dark grey top, she exudes the confidence of someone who has been in show business most of her life. But the "likes" and "sort ofs" liberally sprinkled in her speech remind one she is very much a teenager.

Rodrigo started taking acting and singing lessons at age six and made her television debut in a commercial at 12.

She made her Disney debut a year later as an actress on comedy series Bizaardvark (2016 to 2019) and plays one of the main characters, Nini Salazar-Roberts, on the currently-streaming second season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019 to now).

Her rise to the top of the music world has been swift.

She released her debut solo single, pop ballad Drivers License, in January. Within a week, the emotive heartbreak tune was breaking records, including most streams in a day for a non-holiday song on streaming service Spotify. On the American Billboard singles chart, it shot straight to No. 1.

It went on to top the charts worldwide in countries such as Singapore and Britain, where it beat the record for highest single-day streams for a non-Christmas song previously held by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.

On TikTok, the social media platform preferred by her peers, the tune became the soundtrack for millions of videos.

"It was just super, super surreal and I really still can't wrap my head around everything that sort of happened," she says.

"When the song came out, I was in quarantine and stuck in my house. It was so strange to see all these numbers on my phone and all these records being broken, but I had never actually played a real show or seen anyone sing the song.

"I resonate with the song a lot, so it was cool to see other people resonate with that, no matter their age or gender."

The ultimate validation for her was seeing Drivers License inspire a skit on comedy show Saturday Night Live, which she is "obsessed" with. "That's sort of when I knew. I was, like, 'Oh wow, this is really sort of impacting culture, I guess.'"

There was speculation the lyrics were inspired by her short-lived relationship with fellow High School Musical actor Joshua Bassett and the appearance of a reported third party - another Disney actress, Sabrina Carpenter. To date, all three have refused to confirm the rumours although Bassett's Common Sense and Lie Lie Lie and Carpenter's Skin seem to address the love triangle as well.

Rodrigo's follow-up singles were also hits. Deja Vu, released in April, peaked at No. 8 and Good 4 U went to No. 1 in the United States.

It was little surprise then that Sour, released on May 21, topped the albums charts in the US and worldwide.

Music critics loved the record. The New York Times called it a "nuanced and often exceptional debut album" while Pitchfork hailed it as "a nimble and lightly chaotic collection of break-up tunes filled with melancholy and mischief".

The multi-faceted pop record reflects myriad musical influences, from rock to folk.

"I am influenced by every genre of music I think you can find," says California-born Rodrigo. "There's pop-punk references, there's grungy references, there's some country references and definitely folk references.

"We're all over the place, but I really tried to take all of those references and make them my own."

She is the only child of her Filipino therapist father and mother of German-Irish descent, who is a teacher.

The singer says that being under lockdown during the pandemic last year gave her a chance to polish her songwriting chops.

"For the first six months of the pandemic, I challenged myself to write a song every day. And that sort of was really an awesome exercise for me as a songwriter."

Songwriting also does wonders for her mental health.

"Writing music is so therapeutic for me, there's nothing like taking confusing feelings in your head and making a song about them. And the song makes the feelings feel so much simpler and more manageable.

"And, yeah, it's super empowering to write about, you know, being sad and insecure and see that resonate with people, making them feel less alone. I think that's one of the most empowering things I've really done in my life."

And while it is still early days, she is already thinking of expanding her musical palette on future releases.

"Right now, I'm listening to a lot of rap," she says. Her evolving music taste currently extends to female hip-hop acts such as Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion.

"I think I finished my record and I was, like, 'I can't listen to singer-songwriter music anymore.'

"I didn't have any collaborations on my first album, but I'm looking forward to working with more artistes and different people as I continue on my music-making journey."

• Sour is available on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

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The Life List

Five new hit-makers in pop

Disney singer-actress Olivia Rodrigo might have conquered the charts, but she is not the only one making a splash in pop music.

Here are five other new names making an impact with global hits in the past year.

The 26-year-old's distinctive, soulful vocals drive Heartbreak Anniversary, a piano ballad that became a sleeper hit early this year.

The song went to No. 1 in Singapore and Malaysia and peaked at No. 17 on the American Billboard charts.

At this year's Grammy Awards, the Californian singer's debut EP Take Time was nominated for Best R&B Album, but lost out to John Legend's Bigger Love.

He also sings on pop star Justin Bieber's No. 1 hit, Peaches, which was released in March.

Emo tune Without You was a global hit for the 17-year-old singer, rapper and songwriter from Australia. It was on F*** Love (Savage), the deluxe edition of his mixtape released in November.

In April, a new version of the song, this time with American pop singer Miley Cyrus' vocals, was released and became even more popular. It peaked at No. 8 on the American charts and topped the Australian charts.

He also appears on Unstable, a song in pop star Justin Bieber's new album, Justice.

On Spotify alone, he has more than 29 million monthly listeners.

Watch on: str.sg/3k9Z

Now 17, the Canadian singer-songwriter first found fame as a dancer on reality television show So You Think You Can Dance when she was 13. She ended up third in the 2016 season.

She has had more success as a singer. Her electronic-tinged pop ballad You Broke Me First, the lead single from her 2020 EP Too Young To Be Sad, became a hit worldwide.

The song was consistently in the Top 10 of Spotify and Apple Music's Singapore charts from July to November. It peaked at No. 3 on the British charts and No. 17 on the American charts.

Watch on: str.sg/3k9q

The 20-year-old American rapper, singer and songwriter scored a global hit with Mood, a pop/hip-hop track with Puerto Rico-born American rapper Iann Dior.

The catchy tune, released in July last year, blew up on TikTok before hitting No. 1 on the United States charts and in countries around the world, including Britain, Australia and Germany. It stayed in the Top 10 charts in Singapore from September to April.

In March, he released his debut album El Dorado, which includes Mood.

Watch on: str.sg/3k9J

He released his debut single Honesty in 2018 but it was only last year that the 29-year-old American soul-pop singer scored a hit with his single, At My Worst.

The song was constantly in the Top 10 charts in Singapore from December until early May and went to No. 1 in Malaysia.

In January, he released an updated version of the song that featured vocals from R&B singer Kehlani.

Watch on: str.sg/3k9o