Filipino American's song of heartbreak explodes online, sits atop Billboard charts at No. 1

Olivia Rodrigo's original song set records on the way to the top of the charts.

All of a sudden, and seemingly out of nowhere, a Filipino American artist has the No. 1 song in the world, according to Billboard.

Disney star Olivia Rodrigo's "Driver's License" has zoomed to the top of the Billboard charts for the week ending Jan. 23 while breaking records on Spotify. The 76.1 million opening-week U.S. streams for the emotional track mark a new weekly best for a female artist's first single properly promoted to radio, streaming services and other platforms.

“There’s nothing like sitting at the piano in my bedroom and writing a really sad song. It’s truly my favorite thing in the world,” said Rodrigo who says she wrote it in about an hour.

Critics compare Rodrigo's performance on "Driver's License" reminescent of Lorde or Taylor Swift. The latter tweeted, "That's my baby, and I'm really proud." which got Swift's fans involved helping to push the song to new heights.

Billboard, the music industry's magazine of record, says:

"As with any juggernaut single in recent years, streaming, of course, is the key component that separates the champions from the challengers. In the case of 'Drivers License,' Rodrigo's profile among teens and young adults through her work on Disney, including High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, an intriguing backstory involving a real-life love triangle, and a co-sign from Taylor Swift pushed its initial success, which then sparked an avalanche of interest around the young singer, who's drawn comparisons to Swift, Lorde and others. Whichever avenue introduced fans and observers to 'License,' all roads led to streams of the strong, which registered 76.1 million U.S. clicks in the week ending Jan. 14, according to MRC Data, the highest total for a female artist's first single properly promoted to radio and streaming services."

"On Jan. 11, three days after is release, the single set the Spotify record for most streams in a single day for a non-holiday song with 15.17 million plays, beating that total one day later when it cracked 17.01 million streams in a 24-hour period. It also set a Global Amazon Music record for most streams in a single week for a debut track, and the most on-demand streams in a day. "Drivers License" further topped the Spotify global top 50, the Spotify U.S. top 50, the Apple Music global chart, and the Amazon Music overall top songs chart," reports People magazine.

Part of the popularity of the song is supposedly driven by an alleged real-life romantic triangle between 17-year old Rodrigo involving High School Musical: The Musical — The Series costar Joshua Bassett, 20, and Girl Meets World star Sabrina Carpenter, 21, and their musical battle outlining the romantic entanglements between the trio.

From left: Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter.

The sequence of events began with co-stars Rodrigo and Basset, supposedly developed became an offscreen romantic pair in 2019. Then in June 2020, Bassett and Carpenter were seen on social media, TikTocking together at a Black Lives Matter protest.

Basset releases his "Anyone Else" album in July. In the lead track, he sings the lyrics, "I was hopelessly falling in love with a close friend … who was in a relationship with someone else,” supposedly referring to Carpenter.

Rodrigo releases her own album earlier this month apparently responding to Bassett on the "Driver's License" cut containing the lyrics: “And you’re probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt / She’s so much older than me / She’s everything I’m insecure about,” 

Days after Rodrigo's hit was released earlier this month, Carpenter answered back with her own musical response. In "Sking," she sings: “You can try / To get under my, under my, under my skin / While he’s on mine / Yeah, all on my, all on my, all on my skin / I wish you knew that еven you / Can’t get under my skin if I don’t let you in.”

Within hours after "Skin" was released, Rodrigo seemingly responds with an Instagram Story post that showed her driving her car while singing Taylor Swift's "Ready for It?" “I see nothing better I keep him forever / Like a vendetta-ta / I-I-I see how this is gonna go / Touch me and you'll never be alone / I-Island breeze and lights down low / No one has to know,” sings Rodrigo.

When will this musical tit-for-tat continue among the three recording/acting trio? Who knows if the romantic triangle is for real or simply a product of a Disney publicist's gimmick to sell recordings and boost the stars' popularity. 

The triangular tussle between the trio of stars in the making does go to show that teenage girls still hold a lot of sway on the recording industry with the power to influence the charts, sales and determine an artist's popularity.

Disney is one of Hollywood's most successful incubators of new talent. Among some of the more notable alumni include Selena Gomez, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya and Vanessa Hudgens, another Filipino American, who, ironically, had her show business breakthrough in the original High School Musical.