NEWS
Olivia Rodrigo on the Cover of the Variety's 2021 Power of Young Hollywood Issue.
Heather HazzanOlivia Rodrigo has heard how much Sour, her platinum-selling debut album, has resonated with her fans. But there's still one song that's caught her by surprise.
In her new Variety cover story, she opens up about how "Traitor," which talks about feeling betrayed by an old beau, came to be a success.
"I wrote it on my bed while I was crying," she recalls of the second track on her LP. "I never really thought that it was going to be a song that resonated with so many people. I thought that it was a very specific situation that I was going through, and it’s so funny that that’s the non-single song that’s the most successful. So many people have been like, 'How did you know? This is exactly what happened to me!'"
Not only does "Traitor" score Rodrigo points for relatability, but it has rather large stats for an album cut. The indie-pop guitar-driven anthem debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming one of three top 10 hits in the week Sour debuted atop the Billboard 200, behind "Good 4 U" and "Deja Vu," which both preceded the release of the album. Its top three rank onStreaming Songs earlier this summer made the young hitmaker the first artist to claim Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on the tally in consecutive weeks. And the top 40 debut of "Traitor" on the Pop Airplay chart at the end of July proved the non-single faired well in ranks of her other properly promoted singles.
Aside from her Hot 100 No. 1 hits "Drivers License" and "Good 4 U" as well as "Deja Vu," "Traitor" currently has the fourth-most streams on Spotify out of the rest of the songs on Sour, clocking in at nearly 300 million.
"Traitor," much like the rest of the album, touches on the different emotions affiliated with heartbreak, which the 18-year-old global sensation breaks down into "anger, spite, sadness, jealousy, longing."
"I definitely saw Sour as a kind of slice of teenage life,” Rodrigo tells Variety. "I think a big part of growing up is going through your first love and first heartbreak, and that was definitely reflected in the album."
See Rodrigo's cover shoot images below.
He didn't even let Kendrick Lamar have a day. K. Dot dropped the diss "6:16 In L.A." the morning of May 3, and Drake stole his thunder by dropping his response the same exact day. Not only that, the Toronto superstar dropped a music video too. He uploaded the track "Family Matters" to YouTube with a seven minute video that sees him pick up right where he left off with "Push Ups." Literally. The beat switch at the end of Drake's first diss serves as the intro beat on "Family Matters," and he has a lot to say on it.
The writing was on the wall when Drake started posting messages on his Instagram Story. The rapper posted a clip from The Equalizer 2 in which the main character threatens to kill every one of his enemies. He also posted an image of yellow caution tape. Then DJ Akademiks began hyping up the release of the new song on X (formerly Twitter) and via stream calls with Kai Cenat. Well, Drake made good on the hype and gave fans a song that's even longer than Lamar's "Euphoria."
Drake throws shots at The Weeknd, claiming that his music plays in all the spots where "boys got a little more pride," but Dot is the main target. The title "Family Matters" riffs on the criticisms that Lamar made about his parenting skills. The music video also goes out of its way to upend this claim, with footage of Drake holding his son and walking around his mansion. The rapper ALSO dismisses the fact that K. Dot got a number one with "Like That," claiming that he only did so because he was talking the 6 God. He even goes as far as to suggest that Lamar should give him the money he got from the song.
Like with every diss that's been released thus far, the lyrics on "Family Matters" are dense. Drake has a lot to address, both in terms of enemies and the things Lamar said about him in the last week. It's part of the fun. What we didn't expect was the music video treatment. Drake has clearly been planning out this rollout for a while. We're excited to see what this diss spawns next in the battle. Well, we were. We didn't expect Dot to drop AGAIN less than an hour later...
