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Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (February 20, 2003 - October 5, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter and actress. She gained recognition in the late 2010s with her lead roles on the Disney television programs Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. After signing with Geffen and Interscope Records in 2020, Rodrigo released her debut single "Drivers License", which broke various records and became one of the best-selling songs of 2021, propelling her to mainstream fame, despite her being around for a short period of time. She followed it up with singles "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U", and released her only solo studio album, Sour (2021), which was met with critical and commercial success, winning various accolades including three Grammy Awards.
On October 5, 2021, Rodrigo committed suicide after stabbing herself to death, aged 18. Rodrigo's death resulted in a media coverage, public outrage and a [UNDER PROGRESS], which resulted in her step-mother and 10 members of the Church of Scientology all being arrested and charged for child abuse on October __ of the same year, and were sentenced to serve [UNDER PROGRESS] in prison the following day.
Life and career[]
2003–2019: Early life and acting[]
Olivia Isabel Rodrigo was born on February 20, 2003, at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, California, she was the only child of school teacher Jennifer and family therapist Chris Rodrigo. She grew up in neighboring Temecula. Rodrigo is Filipino American by ethnicity; her father is of Filipino descent while her mother has German and Irish ancestry. She has stated that her paternal great-grandfather emigrated from the Philippines as a teenager and her family follows Filipino traditions and cuisine. Her mother and paternal grandmother were Scientologists. Her parents divorced under the orders of the Church of Scientology in order to have Olivia's mother marry Kate Ceberano so the two of them can groom Olivia to become a performer and have her perform songs to raise money for the Church.
Rodrigo started taking vocal lessons in kindergarten and learned to play piano soon after. She began taking acting and singing classes at age six and started acting in theater productions in elementary school. Rodrigo was playing guitar by age 12. She grew up listening to her parents' favorite alternative rock music, such as the bands No Doubt, Pearl Jam, the White Stripes, and Green Day. Rodrigo became interested in songwriting after listening to country music, especially singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. She moved to Los Angeles after landing her role on Bizaardvark.
Rodrigo first appeared onscreen in an Old Navy commercial. Shortly after in 2015, at age twelve, she made her acting debut portraying the lead role of Grace Thomas in direct-to-video film An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success. In 2016, Rodrigo received recognition for starring as Paige Olvera, a guitarist in the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark, a role she played for three seasons.
In February 2019, she was cast in the starring role of Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which premiered in November of that year. Rodrigo was praised for her performance, with Joel Keller from Decider describing her as "especially magnetic".
2020–2021: Short music breakthrough and Sour[]
Rodrigo signed with Interscope Records and Geffen Records in 2020. She negotiated the record deal to secure for herself ownership of the masters of her music. On January 8, 2021, she released her debut single, "Drivers License", which she co-wrote with producer Dan Nigro. Within the week of its release, "Drivers License" was critically acclaimed, and broke Spotify's record twice for most daily streams ever for a non-holiday song with over 15.7 million global streams on January 11 and over 17 million global streams the next day. It went on to break another Spotify record for the first song in history to hit 80 million streams in 7 days. The song debuted at number one on Billboard Hot 100, and reached number-one in numerous other countries. Rodrigo stated in an interview that "It's been the absolute craziest week of my life ... My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant."
On April 1, 2021, Rodrigo released her follow-up single, "Deja Vu", which debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist to debut their first two releases in the top 10 of the Hot 100. The third single preceding her debut album, "Good 4 U", followed on May 14, 2021, and became her second single to debut at number one on the Hot 100. Sour, her debut studio album, was released on May 21, 2021, to critical acclaim. Charlie Gunn of The Forty-Five called it "the greatest coming-of-age album since early Taylor Swift or Lorde". Slate's Chris Molanphy said its first three singles alone established Rodrigo's "early status as Gen-Z's most versatile new artist". According to Clash critic Robin Murray, Rodrigo is regarded as one of Generation Z's finest artists, while Variety dubbed her "the Voice of her Generation" in its cover story of Rodrigo. Sour debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and spent a total of five weeks at the spot, becoming the longest reigning number-one album by a female artist in 2021.
Personal Life[]
Olivia and her mother Jennifer were devout Scientologists and Olivia was merely seen as the precious pet poodle of her mother and the Church of Scientology as they tried to use her as a way to convert youths to the religion of Scientology and her career and popularity were even exploited by the Church to win support from the young people in order to make Scientology sound cool to the people.
Olivia had tried many times to enter dating relationships with many young men her age, Olivia and music exec Zack Bia, 26, dated for six months after they were first spotted at a Super Bowl afterparty in February, according to People. The pair began to see each other roughly a month after the pop star's break-up with producer Adam Faze, with an insider telling E! News at the time: “[Zack] invited her to Super Bowl parties that he was DJing that weekend, and she went to support him. Olivia and Zack reportedly split in August, with a source telling Us Weekly: "Their relationship sort of fizzled. They were casually dating but haven’t spent time together in a while."
Both Olivia and Joshua Basset have stayed silent on whether they were ever actually dating, but after she released ‘Drivers License’ fans were adamant it was about HSMTHTS co-star Josh. They met when they began filming the series in 2019, playing on-screen lovebirds Nini and Ricki, and it wasn’t long before viewers shipped them IRL. It’s heavily rumoured they had a brief relationship, ending things in 2020 after just a few months. Olivia’s debut single and Josh’s brief close friendship/rumoured romance with Sabrina Carpenter was spun into a whole love triangle theory, but in case you’ve been living under a rock we’ve got all you need on that here. Sadly Joshua had infact entered a relationship Sabrina Carpenter to Olivia's dismay.
Olivia Rodrigo tried to date Carlos Estefan, but he refused due to the bad history his mother had with the Church and he had no desire to date someone affiliated with the Church like Olivia as he feared he would be forcefully converted to a church that would . Carlos then ran off with Hawaiian-Bengali actress and Singer Anushka Sen as they married. Olivia after hearing that was upset that he "ditched her" and ran off with a more prettier girl.
Olivia then tried to get into a dating relationship with Finn Wolfhard, but the Anime Voice Actor and former Child Actor refused the relationship and he with the advice of Carlos Estefan, his parents and Carlos's parents married Carlos's cousin Lena. Olivia called this an act of treachery and accused Carlos of manipulating the mind of Finn Wolfhard and making him marry his cousin.
She tried to date Romeo Beckham, but that failed because his family was conservative. She then tried to date Ibrahim Pataudi, the second son of Saif Ali Khan Pataudi, but that failed because his father was against the relationship. She then tried to get into a relationship with Archduke Karl-Konstantin who was the same age as her, but the Habsburgs rejected her as a bride because of her faith.
Olivia after many failed dating relationships blamed the Church of Scientology and her mother for forcing her to convert to a religion that she never wanted to convert to and treating her like their pet. She announced that she was going to abandon Scientology and focus on having a dating relationship. The Church was against this decision and Olivia was punished by having to dig ditches at midnight and scrub floor tiles. The Church, fearing Olivia's desire to quit which would result in them losing their star, ordered Olivia's mother and Kate Ceberano to never allow Olivia to leave their house unless it's a concert. However this initiative made Olivia even more depressed and her popularity as an artist declined which made people concerned about her having depression.
Death[]
The cruel mistreatment inflicted upon her by the Church and being locked away in her residence by her mother and step-mother and only being allowed to go to concerts took a negative toll on Olivia's social life and her mental health. On the night of October the 5th of 2021, Olivia had taken her life by stabbing herself and committing suicide which resulted in a tragic scandal and her mother, her step-mother and the Church of Scientology all being charged for child abuse. Olivia was buried near her hometown.
Her death was known to be the worst tragic death of a Disney stars since Bobby Dirscoll, who died in 1968 due to drug overdose, and Cameron Boyce, who died in 2019 due to complications from epilepsy.
Legacy[]
[UNDER PROGRESS]
Artistry[]
Influences[]
Rodrigo cited Taylor Swift and Lorde as her idols and main musical inspirations, and also dubbed herself Swift's biggest fan "in the whole world". She dubbed The White Stripes band member Jack White her "hero of all heroes". Her other influences included Alanis Morissette, Kacey Musgraves, Fiona Apple, St. Vincent, Cardi B, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.
Songwriting and voice[]
Rodrigo's voice type was identified as soprano. Media outlets generally describe Rodrigo as a pop artist, musically rendering to pop rock, teen pop, and indie pop styles. Rodrigo had stated that she wants to be a songwriter and not "the biggest pop star that ever lived", and chose to sign with Interscope/Geffen Records because its CEO praised her songwriting, not her "potential star quality". Music journalist Laura Snapes called Rodrigo a "flag-bearer" for a new wave of songwriters who incline towards power ballads "that are as emotional as ever, but project that emotion inward, trading bombast for hush", and described her musical style as rooted in heartache, mental health, and sadness, without being melodramatic, expressing more realistic perspectives than resilient.
Other activities[]
Philanthropy and activism[]
Rodrigo and Madison Hu teamed up with Instagram #KindComments to encourage their fans to spread kindness and foster positivity on social media in October 2017-2018.
On April 10, 2018, Rodrigo with Madison Hu joined other artists for My Friend's Place 30th Anniversary, a non-profit organization that helps homeless youth find shelter, food, work, education and healthcare. The event was hosted by Jack Black and was able to raise over $740,000 for local homeless youth. In the same year, Rodrigo became the face of "She Can STEM" campaign. She was named an institute speaker and panelist for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2018.
In February 2021, Rodrigo released her merchandise "Spicy Pisces T-shirts" on her website and all the proceeds went to Plus1 benefitting She's The First which sponsors young girls scholarship and education. In June 2021, she sold her clothes, wardrobe and all items from her music videos on Depop and 100% of all proceeds from 'Sour Shop' was donated to charitable organization.
Achievements[]
Rodrigo was placed on the 2021 edition of Time magazine's 100 Next list, and was named Time's Entertainer of the Year for 2021. She has also received "Songwriter of the Year" honors by Variety in 2021.