Olivia Rodrigo had the best time of her life among recording artists in May 2021. Her single Good 4 U quickly became the most streamed song on Spotify. It broke the record for the most plays in a single week on Spotify. The third single from her debut album was streamed more than 84 million times globally in the tracking week ending on May 27. It’s several million plays ahead of the previous record-holder, which was Rodrigo herself.
Record-breaking debut "Sour"
But it isn’t the only record the teenager broke. The breakout star dropped her album on 21 May, instantly topping the Billboard 200 chart and Rolling Stones’ Top 22 albums on her debut. Rodrigo’s debut album Sour, accumulated over 300 million streams and topped Spotify charts in over 47 countries.
Rodrigo is the only second artist in history to debut at number one on Billboard 200. The first artist to break the record was Olivia Newton-John’s If You Love Mr, Let Me Know, and Have You Never Been Mellow albums in the 1970s.
Breaking other records
Besides having broken the record for the most-streamed song on Spotify, Rodrigo also holds the record for the most songs on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart at one time - a total of 8 songs in the Top 10. She surpassed Taylor Swift’s previously held record in August 2020.
The Filipino-American youth also became the first artist in history to have three songs, all from a single album, enter the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 chart. The rest of Sour also landed on the chart’s top 30.
Youngest chart-topper in the UK
The young upstart musician is not done with breaking record after record. She became the youngest solo act to score a U.K double with Sour and Good 4 U, topping the U.K’s official charts.
Her debut single, Drivers License topped the UK charts in January 2021 and broke Spotify’s record for the most streams in one day, peaking at 17 million streams on 12 January. "Drivers License" was the first single in Spotify’s history to accumulate at least 80 million streams in one seven-day tracking period. It earned itself a place in the history books in the first few days of 2021.
Sour’s 51,000 sales, including streams, sales, and downloads, made it the biggest opening week for a debut album in two years. The previous record was held by Lewis Capaldi’s "Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent" in May 2019.