Filipino-American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo has added another feather to her cap after she bagged the BRIT Billion Award, making her the youngest artist to receive the recognition.
The 20-year-old pop star raked up one billion streams in the United Kingdom, the BRIT Awards announced on its social media pages.
The award was presented to Rodrigo during her trip to London, the award-giving body added.
First introduced in May 2023, the BRIT Billion Award is given to artists who surpass one billion streams in the UK, based on the calculation of the Official Charts Company.
The first batch of artists who received the prestigious award were Ellie Goulding, Coldplay, ABBA, George Ezra, Sam Smith, Anne-Marie, Mariah Carey, Raye, Lewis Capaldi, AJ Tracey, and Rita Ora.
James Arthur, Years & Years, Becky Hill, Clean Bandit, Lana Del Rey, Queen, and Wizkid also bagged the BRIT Billion Award.
While Rodrigo received her first Brit Billion Award, it is not her first Brit award. In 2022, she took home the Brit Award for International Song of the Year for her single good 4 u. The song is part of her 11-track album SOUR.
She also performed her award-winning song drivers license at the Brit Awards in 2021.
Rodrigo won her first GRAMMY award in 2022 for her song drivers license.
Sophomore album
The BRIT Billion Award came three weeks before the release of Rodrigo’s sophomore album GUTS.
GUTS is a 12-track album which will include the songs all-american bitch, vampire, lacy, ballad of a homeschooled girl, making the bed, logical, get him hack!, love is embarrassing, the grudge, pretty isn’t pretty, and teenage dream.
Bad idea, right? is the latest song Rodrigo released from the album, following vampire in June.
She co-wrote the song with songwriter-producer Daniel Nigro in New York City in 2022.
“[W]e wrote the chorus as a joke but we loved it so much we made it into a full fledged song,” the pop star said in an Instagram post.
In bad idea, right?, Rodrigo talks about hooking up with an ex-boyfriend who she hasn’t heard from for months.
The chorus goes, “Yes, I know that he’s my ex; But can’t two people reconnect? I only see him as a friend; The biggest lie I ever said; Oh, yes, I know that he’s my ex; But can’t two people reconnect? I only see him as a friend; I just tripped and fell into his bed.”
The song’s music video has garnered 7.9 million views since August 11, while it has over 25 million streams on Spotify.
Meanwhile, vampire debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songs in July.
Fans of the singer, collectively known as Livies, can expect a sophomore album that is “a little rockier” and “definitely a lot happier,” Rodrigo said.
“I think it’s a little tongue-in-cheek and a little playful, which is a side of myself and my music that I think I didn’t really show in Sour, so I’m really excited to kind of explore that in this album,” she said in an interview with SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio.
Her goal in the album is to showcase how she matured as a 20-year-old artist, she added.
With reports from Veronica Terese A. Amparo
