18-Year-Old Olivia Rodrigo Becomes Youngest Artist To Top Both UK Singles And Album Chart

Olivia Rodrigo has become the youngest solo artist to top both the UK singles and album chart at the same time.

Sour, the 18-year-old’s debut album has celebrated the biggest opening week of 2021, setting a record in the industry.

Year’s Breakthrough Artist

It attracted the highest number of streams for its first album in its opening week, surpassing former record holder Lewis Capaldi.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s Good 4 U single is the largest of the year, featuring 117,000 chart sales in seven days.

The figure includes 13.5 million streams, according to The Official Charts Company, which called the US artist “the best artist of the year”.

New Record

Rodrigo’s single debut Drivers License made the UK charts in January.

The song broke Spotify’s record for most streams in a single day, reaching 17 million streams on January 12th.

Sour’s 51,000 sales – including streams, sales and downloads – make it the biggest week to open the first album in two years, from Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired to A Hellish Extent in May 2019.

Rodrigo’s album has received 45.7 million streams of individual tracks over the past one week (30,945 equivalent sales), the Official Charts Company said.

Olivia is the first artist for six years to raise both charts at the release of their debut album. The last one was Sam Smith in 2015 with the album In The Lonely Hour and single Lay Me Down.

About The Artist

Olivia Rodrigo has been singing for as long as she can remember. Growing up in Temecula, California, she would assemble choruses to No Doubt’s Bathwater and the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army.

She started her vocal education in kindergarten and at the age of eight it became a regular talent show.

Her ability to stay in the song is evident even then. “I was so dramatic,” she laughs. “There’s videos on YouTube of me singing, and I’m so into it. I act everything out and I’m so performative. People always told my mom, ‘You should put her in acting lessons.'”

Rodrigo went on to star in two Disney series, Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, where she plays a student involved in a school production of the classic 2006 musical.