Olivia Rodrigo reflects on one year of ‘Sour’: “It’s impossible to sum up how much this album means to me”
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of her debut album, ‘Sour’, Olivia Rodrigo shared a post reflecting on its creation and subsequent success.
‘Sour’ was an immediate smash-hit upon its release last May, leading Rodrigo to smash multiple chart records; she gave the US’ Billboard 200 chart the biggest first-week figures it’d seen for 2021, made UK chart history as the first female artist with three of the top five singles in the same week, and became the youngest artist to land a UK Number One on two concurrent charts – a milestone that she hit two weeks in a row.
In the months since its release, the album has racked up 15 Platinum certificates across seven countries, including three each in the US, Canada and Norway.
Honouring the record’s first birthday, Rodrigo said it was “impossible for [her] to sum up in words how much this album means to [her] and how grateful [she is] to have gotten the privilege to make it and watch it exist in the world”. She also gave a shoutout to producer Dan Nigro, and thanked “everyone who has embraced [her] 17 year old lamentations and forever changed [her] life in the process”.
‘Sour’ was released on May 21, 2021 via Geffen, flanked her breakout hit ‘Driver’s License’, as well as singles ‘Deja Vu’, ‘Good 4 U’, ‘Brutal’ and ‘Traitor’. To follow it up, she released two Disney+ films: ‘Sour Prom’ and ‘Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film)’.
NME gave ‘Sour’ a four-star review, writer Rhian Daly saying: “When your first release is a track as ubiquitous as ‘drivers license’, it must be tough going to make a whole album that matches up. For the most part, Rodrigo has passed the bar she set on that single, sharing with us an almost-masterpiece that’s equal parts confident, cool and exhilaratingly real. This is no flash-in-the-pan artist, but one we’ll be living with for years to come.”
The record also featured in NME’s list of the best debut albums released last year, and won Best New Act In The World at the 2022 BandLab NME Awards.
Back in February, Rodrigo said she already has a name picked out for her second album, and has reunited with Nigro to create new songs. Boasting that she still writes much of her music in her bedroom, Rodrigo said: “It’s really exciting to think about the next world that’s coming up for me. I just love writing songs. I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself… just sort of explore and have fun right now.”
Rodrigo is in the midst of a sprawling world tour in support of ‘Sour’. Following her current North American run, she’ll head to Europe and the UK, with 15 dates supported by Baby Queen on the cards – find more details here.
During her North American tour, Rodrigo has covered a handful of pop-rock classics, including ‘Just A Girl’ by No Doubt, ‘Complicated’ by Avril Lavigne and ‘Seether’ by Veruca Salt. Lavigne herself even joined Rodrigo on-stage for the cover in Toronto, while in Vancouver, Rodrigo linked up with Conan Gray to cover ‘The One That Got Away’ by Katy Perry.
This month also saw Rodrigo weigh in on the US Supreme Court’s private vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which made abortion legal. “Because we’re in DC, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say how heartbroken I am over the Supreme Court’s potential decision,” she told the crowd at her show in Washington.
