SOUR TOUR IS FINALLY HAPPENING!!! with angels @gracieabrams @HolHumberstone and @babyqueen!! tix on sale Friday!!!!💗🎸💜🌈 pic.twitter.com/WgGyHrAom9
— Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) December 6, 2021
‘SOUR’ Tour Officially Announced!
Category: News
Avril Lavigne Presents Olivia Rodrigo With Variety Hitmakers’ Songwriter of the Year Award
Olivia Rodrigo, who rose to stardom after the success of her debut single “Drivers License” topped the charts in January, was honored with Variety’s Songwriter of the Year award at this year’s Hitmakers event on Saturday.
Avril Lavigne presented Rodrigo with the award, introducing the artist by saying, “This year we were introduced to a new artist whose debut album marked a major return for rock-and-roll on the charts.”
“From ‘Driver’s License’ to ‘Good 4 You’ to ‘Deja Vu,’ Olivia’s singles from her album ‘Sour’ are part of the collective psyche of 2021, and she wrote every single one of them,” Lavigne added.
In Variety’s August cover story on Rodrigo, Lavigne explained why she has so much admiration for the young star. “I think it’s important for people like Olivia to give an honest voice to so many young women who are still discovering themselves,” Lavigne said. “Her songs are her truth, and you can really feel that. You can tell it’s real by the way all of her fans grab onto every single word.”
“Her songs are personal, her songs are raw and her songs are relatable. Please welcome to the stage, Variety’s songwriter of the year, Olivia Rodrigo.”
Rodrigo started off her speech by thanking Lavigne and citing the “Girlfriend” singer as an influence: “I am such a massive fan of you, I look up to you so much, so this is so surreal for me. Thank you for the love and support.”
“I’ve been writing songs since I was like 5-years-old and my favorite part about all of this is that feeling of writing a song that perfectly captures how I feel better than any conversation could have. So to accept an award for songwriting is really meaningful to me,” she continued.
“Drivers License” smashed Spotify’s record upon release for most streams in a single week (on its way to a total of 1.1 billion as of mid-November).
“When I put out ‘Drivers License’ about this really hard time in my life, I watched it effect so many people regardless of sexual orientation, or gender or age — and to me, that’s the really beautiful thing about art and that was really special to me — to not only see how universal these feeling were but how music can bring us together and make us feel less alone,” Rodrigo said in her speech. “My heart and soul lies in songwriting and so for people to connect with my music like they have is beyond a dream come true.”
Lastly, Rodrigo thanked everyone for the Hitmaker award.
“Thank you so much Variety for this honor, and thank you for the opportunity to be in a room with all these people I just adore. Thank you to everyone on my team [and] to my manager at Interscope, I love you guys so much. And thank you especially to all of the amazing, supportive women in my life. I appreciate it, thanks again.”
SOURCE: Variety.com
Olivia Rodrigo and More to Be Honored at Variety’s Hitmakers Event
Variety is pleased to announce the honorees for its fifth annual Hitmakers celebration. The Dec. 2 issue recognizes the writers, producers, publishers, managers and executives who helped make – and break – the 25 most consumed songs of the year.
Hitmakers culminates in an invitation-only brunch held on Saturday, Dec. 4, presented by Peacock and the streamer’s Emmy-nominated comedy series “Girls5eva.” At the brunch, the cast and creator of “Girls5eva” will help MC the event with videos made exclusively for the celebration.
Amazon Music will host the red carpet pre-show and awards presentation with Variety, and present the Rising Star of the Year Award which recognizes Polo G. IHG Hotels and Resorts will showcase their properties at the event.
Wagoneer is the official partner of the event and will be showcasing the all-new 2022 Grand Wagoneer on site. Premium spirits portfolio William Grant & Sons will be providing specialty cocktails made with Hendrick’s Gin, Reyka Vodka, Milagro Tequila and Monkey Shoulder Whisky.
The 2021 Hitmakers program includes the following awards selected by Variety’s editorial team:
Olivia Rodrigo – Songwriter of the Year: With her debut album “Sour” released months after turning 18, Olivia Rodrigo has solidified her place as one of the most important voices of her generation. Variety celebrates her string of 2021 hits, including “Drivers License,” “Good 4 uU” “Deja Vu” and “Traitor.”
SOURCE: Variety.com
Olivia Rodrigo & The Weeknd Lead American Music Award Nominations
Olivia Rodrigo and the Weeknd lead the nominees for the American Music Awards with seven and six nods respectively, show producers MRC Live & Alternative and ABC today this morning. Bad Bunny, Doja Cat and Giveon are close behind with five. The full list of nominees is below.
Voting for the show, whose winners are chose by fans, is open — fans can vote for all AMA categories on TikTok by searching for “AMAs” in-app. The awards take place live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 21, at 8:00 p.m. EST/PST on ABC and stream next day on Hulu.
Rodrigo makes her AMAs debut scoring seven nominations, including Artist of the Year and New Artist of The Year. Five-time AMA winner The Weeknd earned six nominations, including Artist of the Year as well as Favorite Music Video and Favorite Pop Song. Other Artist of the Year nominees include Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake and Taylor Swift.
New categories this year are Favorite Trending Song, with nominees from TikTok on the year’s most viral songs, Favorite Gospel Artist, and Favorite Latin Duo or Group, which rounds out last year’s expansion of the Latin categories bringing the total to five in the genre.
Nominees are based on key fan interactions – as reflected on the Billboard charts – including streaming, album sales, song sales and radio airplay. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partner MRC Data, and cover the time period September 25, 2020, through September 23, 2021. The American Music Awards winners are voted entirely by fans.
The 2021 American Music Awards is produced by MRC Live & Alternative and Jesse Collins Entertainment. The show is sponsored by Xfinity.
SOURCE: Variety.com
Paramore Members Given a Writing Credit for ‘good 4 u’
Paramore’s Hayley Williams and former guitarist Josh Farro have been given songwriting credits on Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 mega-single good 4 u.
The chart-topping Sour track has been a huge hit this year though has also drawn attention for sounding similar to Paramore’s Riot! classic Misery Business. Now, seemingly, this is been acknowledged, with Hayley and Josh retroactively credited alongside Olivia and Daniel Nigro.
A source tells Kerrang! that, “The teams have been in touch prior to the song’s release and the production credits have now been updated to include an interpolation of Misery Business, alongside Olivia and the track’s producer, Dan Nigro.”
Read this: Will the success of Olivia Rodrigo’s good 4 u be good for rock music?The Paramore vocalist also shared the news on her Instagram stories, reposting publisher Warner Chappell Music’s post writing, “Our publisher is wildin rn [right now].”
SOURCE: Kerrang!
MTV Slates Olivia Rodrigo and More for VMAs Performances
MTV’s initial round of performers for this year’s Video Music Awards show is a chart-topping fivesome consisting of Lil Nas X, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello. Many more will be coming, of course, to fill out a three-hour slot on the way to the telecast going live Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Plans for an audience for the show have yet to be announced. Last year, the VMAs show went to a pre-taped, studio-set format after having to nix its initial Barclays Center location due to pandemic conditions. This year’s telecast is — so far — set to make good on that rain check and actually broadcast from the arena in Brooklyn, though it’s believed that producers are still evaluating options about what kind of crowd the live event might play to.
The initial crop of performers is heavy with commercial firepower, especially in the case of Rodrigo, who has topped both the album and singles charts for much of this year with “Sour” and several hit songs from it.
Although it may be difficult to remember at this point that Rodrigo is not a music-scene veteran, her VMAs performance will be her first on the show. The singer was a virtual unknown outside the realm of “High School Musical” fans at this point last year, and still has done relatively few performances, on television or anywhere else, as a solo artist. She’ll be performing “Good 4 U’ on the telecast.
SOURCE: Variety.com
Olivia Receives 5 MTV VMA Nominations
The nominations for the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards have been revealed. Several artists scored five nods apiece, including first-time contender Olivia Rodrigo.
Fans can vote for the winners across 14 gender-neutral categories from now through Friday, Sept. 3. Voting for best new artist will remain active into the awards show on Sunday, Sept. 12, with nominations for social categories including “Best Group” and “Song of the Summer” announced at a later date.
The 2021 MTV Video Music Awards are set to air live from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which served as the site of the VMAs in 2013, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The arena was originally set to be the site of the 2020 edition of the music awards show. But adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced the team behind the production to pivot to a show that took place in various locations across New York City.
A complete list of Olivia’s 2021 MTV VMA nominations follows.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Ariana Grande – Republic Records
Doja Cat – Kemosabe Records / RCA Records
Justin Bieber – Def Jam
Megan Thee Stallion – 300 Entertainment
Olivia Rodrigo – Geffen Records
Taylor Swift – Republic RecordsSONG OF THE YEAR
24kGoldn ft. iann dior – “Mood” – RECORDS LLC / Columbia Records
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic – “Leave The Door Open” – Aftermath Entertainment / Atlantic Records
BTS – “Dynamite” – BIGHIT MUSIC
Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion – “WAP” – Atlantic Records
Dua Lipa – “Levitating” – Warner Records
Olivia Rodrigo – “drivers license” – Geffen RecordsPUSH PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
September 2020: Wallows – “Are You Bored Yet?” – Columbia Records
October 2020: Ashnikko – “Daisy” – Warner Records
November 2020: SAINt JHN – “Gorgeous” – Godd Complexx / HITCO
December 2020: 24kGoldn – “Coco” – RECORDS LLC / Columbia Records
January 2021: JC Stewart – “Break My Heart” – Elektra Music Group
February 2021: Latto – “Sex Lies” – RCA Records
March 2021: Madison Beer – “Selfish” – Epic Records / Sing It Loud
April 2021: The Kid LAROI – “WITHOUT YOU” – Columbia Records
May 2021: Olivia Rodrigo – “drivers license” – Geffen Records
June 2021: girl in red “Serotonin” – world in red / AWAL
July 2021: Fousheé – “my slime” – RCA Records
August 2021: jxdn – “Think About Me” – DTA Records / Elektra Music GroupBEST POP
Ariana Grande – “positions” – Republic Records
Billie Eilish – “Therefore I Am” – Darkroom / Interscope Records
BTS – “Butter” – BIGHIT MUSIC
Harry Styles – “Treat People With Kindness” – Columbia Records
Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar, Giveon – “Peaches” – Def Jam
Olivia Rodrigo – “good 4 u” – Geffen Records
Shawn Mendes – “Wonder” – Island Records
Taylor Swift – “willow” – Republic Records
Olivia Can’t Mount a Major Tour Until 2022 Due to TV Commitments
Olivia Rodrigo is the world’s hottest pop star, from her Billboard 200 No. 1 album Sour to her No. 1s “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U” to her insane week in June when all 11 of her album tracks hit the Billboard Hot 100 — but she’s unable to take the next step in her music career and sing those songs live. The 18-year-old remains the star of the Disney+ hit High School Musical: The Musical: The Series for at least two years, and TV commitments prevent her from touring, industry sources tell Billboard.
“By the time she’s able to tour, I don’t know what the relevance is going to be,” says Brock Jones, a longtime promoter in Nashville and Philadelphia, comparing Rodrigo to the period in Elvis Presley’s career when his manager, Col. Tom Parker, pushed him to star in films rather than participating in tours. “What is marketable today could be an afterthought in a week.”
Promoters are holding spring 2022 dates in 3,000-to-5,000-seat venues for Rodrigo, concert-industry sources say, to give Rodrigo experience before she graduates to bigger venues. A source close to Rodrigo says she plans to play the iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in late September, which would be her third major live performance, after “Drivers License” at the Brit Awards and two songs on Saturday Night Live, both in May.
Reps for Disney and Rodrigo’s record label, Geffen, declined to comment, and her manager, Kristen Smith, didn’t respond to an interview request.
“You’ve got to build and take the right steps before you shoot for the moon,” says Louis Messina, owner of Messina Touring Group, promoter for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and other superstars.
“It’s hard to win over 18,000 fans if you’re not ready for it. You’ve got to put in the groundwork. Yeah, she could go out and do an arena tour. But arena and stadium tours are always going to be available to you if you’ve got the goods.”
Rodrigo is an unusual type of pop star, as she became famous as a recording artist (and before that, a TV star) long before performing gigs. Cardi B was in a similar position when she first played festival dates and other shows in 2018, having become famous on Vine, Instagram and VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York before signing with Atlantic Records and putting out a Grammy-winning debut album. Cardi B has been able to overcome her inexperience, touring arenas in 2019, but some in the concert business are skeptical that Rodrigo can do the same.
‘Good’ & ‘Bad’ Still Best: Olivia Rodrigo & Ed Sheeran Hold Atop Billboard Global Charts
“She’ll blow out tickets when she starts touring, but her career ultimately will be short-lived — it’s not her, it’s the way the industry is now, and the nature of streaming success and how things can or cannot be maintained,” says David T. Viecelli, agent for Pavement, Wire, the Mekons and others. “If she’s selling out arenas 10 years from now, I’ll be really surprised.”But others say Rodrigo’s album Sour suggests long-term success, both in sales and touring. “Given the numbers, I imagine the appetite will be huge,” says Tom Windish, an agent for Wasserman Music. Randy Phillips, the former AEG Live CEO who manages boy band Why Don’t We, adds that tickets for an early-2022 Rodrigo tour could go on sale this fall, and Sour will still be hot at that point. “I think she’s fine, honestly,” he says. “The marketing stuff happens not when a show plays, it’s when a show goes on sale. If it’s true she has this commitment to Disney, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
Messina, whose promotion company is an AEG Live partner, sees Taylor Swift-like potential in Rodrigo. “I guarantee you, if I get a phone call tomorrow, I’d be on a plane. I’m sure she will be doing shows. She’s got plenty of time,” he says. “Do I think she’s a star? Yeah.”
SOURCE: Billboard
Led by Olivia Rodrigo, Recorded Music Having a Surge in 2021
Any lingering impact that COVID-19 had on American life did nothing to slow music’s six-year growth streak, as MRC Data’s 2021 Mid-Year Report shows overall music consumption for the first six months up 13.5% over the same stretch of 2020. That gain outpaces the 11.6% year-over-year growth that the U.S. music market clocked in all 12 months of 2020.
The mid-year report card also finds actress-turned-singer Olivia Rodrigo joining the winners’ circle, Swift continuing to thrive, and the once-novel comeback by the vinyl LP is on its way to a 16th straight year of annual growth, all as streaming continues to rule the roost. On-demand audio and video song streams are up by 10.8% in the U.S. over the first half of 2020, and up 27.5% on a global basis. (The full MRC Data report can be downloaded here.)
While Swift remains vital, the queen of the charts thus far in 2021 is 18-year-old Olivia Rodrigo, who graduated from Disney Channel star to pop sensation in January when her “Drivers License” single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1.
She went on to earn the distinction of seeing all 11 songs from debut album “Sour” enter the Hot 100 in the same frame the collection racked up 295,000 equivalent units in its first week — the biggest seven-day total of 2021 and the biggest week for a debut album since Billboard began factoring song sales and streams into its album charts in December 2014, besting a mark that Cardi B set in 2018.
Although the album has only been out since May 21, it stands as the second most consumed set of 2021, as streams from her first two singles help her compile a six-month total of almost 1.4 million overall units. She and Wallen are the only acts to top 1 million equivalent units in the first half of 2021, although Justin’s Bieber’s “Justice” (962,000) and “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” by the late Pop Smoke (948,000) come close. Five albums racked up a million or more equivalent units in the first half of 2020, when Lil Baby’s “My Turn” topped all with 1.47 million.
Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” is the undisputed champ on MRC’s Mid-Year Top Digital Song Consumption list (sales plus equivalent value from streams) with 3.92 million units, runner-up “Levitating” by Dua Lipa with DaBaby at 3.2 million. The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” fell just shy of 3 million with 2.93 million, while each of the remaining top 10 songs each surpassed 2 million.
Pop, led by Rodrigo, owns half of the top 10 albums in the first half of 2021, compared to just three a year ago, with Lipa, Swift and Ariana Grande joining Rodrigo and Bieber in this half-year’s winner’s circle. Country, shut out of the top 10 albums in 2020’s first half, owns two slots in the latest report, with Luke Combs — the genre’s lone top 10 album in the 2020 year-end recap — joining Wallen. The Weeknd is R&B’s sole representative in the mid-year top 10, as he was a year ago.
Aside from the four hip-hop songs, the mid-year top 10 includes three pop tunes (Rodrigo, Lipa and Bieber’s “Peaches,” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon) and three R&B entries (SZA’s “Good Days” joining the two Weeknd songs).
“Olivia Rodrigo is just rewriting the rules,” says the aforementioned label exec. “She’d be an outlier in most years. Dua Lipa has been one of the most amazing artist development stories over the past three years. The genres of the top 10 songs are more diverse than we’ve seen, and that’s good.”
SOURCE: Full article available at Variety
Taylor Swift, St. Vincent & Jack Antonoff Co-Writes Added to ‘deja vu’
Olivia Rodrigo has been open about how much Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” influenced her Sour single “Deja Vu.” Now she has made the connection official by adding Swift, Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent as co-writers on the track.
The songwriters have been added to the track’s Spotify and TIDAL metadata, with credit going to them over the song’s bridge.
Rodrigo’s Swift fandom cuts deep, and the pair first interacted when Swift acknowledged a cover Rodrigo had done of “Cruel Summer.” After releasing “Deja Vu” as the second single off her debut album, Rodrigo told Rolling Stone that the yelling on the bridge of the song was inspired by the fan-favorite Lover track.
“It’s one of my favorite songs ever. I love like the yelly vocals in it, like the harmonized yells that [Swift] does, I think they’re like super electric and moving, so I wanted to do something like that,” the singer says in the video. The song is also the only collaboration between Swift and St. Vincent, who both work with Antonoff. (Reps for Rodrigo and Swift did not immediately reply to requests for comment.)This is the second Sour track to feature a Swift-Antonoff interpolation and writing credit, with “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” borrowing from the Reputation ballad “New Year’s Day.” Although the pair have yet to actually link up in a studio or for a performance, Swift and Rodrigo have been orbiting around each other over the course of the year. Rodrigo and friend/fellow famous Swiftie Conan Gray were part of the Fearless (Taylor’s Version) rollout and made TikToks set to songs off the re-recorded take on Swift’s sophomore LP. Swift also gave Rodrigo a ring she wore while recording Red. They officially met at the Brit Awards, where they exchanged handwritten letters.
SOURCE: Rolling Stone
