After the immeasurable success that followed “drivers license,” the momentous release of Sour last May, numerous accolades and awards show appearances, a sold out tour, and a rapidly growing fanbase worldwide, 19-year-old Olivia Rodigo gifted us her very own documentary last Friday on Disney+ chronicling the writing process behind her debut album and how she has navigated this everchanging past year of her life in the spotlight.
Fellow Her Campus Pace member Maeve Casey and I sat down the night of the documentary’s release, in our Sour-inspired outfits, equipped with our purple butterfly glow sticks and all, to experience this next step of one of our favorite artists and needless to say, we were far from disappointed. Our viewing party was full of shared angst, both with each other and with Olivia herself, and about an hour of very passionate scream singing.
The documentary takes place over the course of a road trip, with each song performed acting as a “pit stop” of sorts on the journey in settings such as gas stations, underpasses, motels, and amphitheaters. The creative decision behind this plot design is representative of the drives between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City where Olivia says most of the writing for her album took place. She wanted the documentary to mimic that commute and thus pay one last homage to the writing process and that part of her life.
The first line spoken in the film is, “How would I describe this chapter of my life?” A seemingly weighted question posed by Rodrigo as the documentary immediately dives into the abrupt skyrocketing success that was her debut single, “drivers license.” She talks about in a few interviews how it’s “crazy” to her, all of the changes that instantaneously hit around the same time of the “drivers license” fame, including moving out of her parents house, finishing up her senior year of high school, and producing already her first album. This provides a segway into the first performance of the documentary, where Rodrigo is set up on the floor of in an empty bedroom with nothing but her keyboard, a microphone,and what appears to be a handful of moving boxes waiting to be unpacked and sings her eighth track of the album, “happier.” The set for this particular scene seems to tie into the aforementioned themes of new steps forward and now living on her own as she is still trying to settle into this new space or chapter. It’s a fitting first song for the film, as she lets us in on the fact that “happier” was actually the first song that her and her producer, Dan Nigro, produced together. Needless to say, it was the beginning of a prosperous friendship between the two, seeing as Dan has worked with Olivia on her music ever since.
Though the entire album was performed throughout the film, most of them were given a unique revamp of sound exclusive to the documentary, with songs like “jealousy, jealousy” having a punkier, edgier modification, while songs like “good 4 u,” “favorite crime,” and “traitor” getting strikingly stripped down versions that I think helped highlight the rawness of the lyrics that can often get overwhelmed by heavy production. For songs like “1 step forward, 3 steps back,” “drivers license,” and “brutal” we got glimpses into the early drafts, with Rodrigo sharing voice notes recorded on her phone containing original lyrics that were eventually revised.
Before diving into the track that transformed her career, Rodrigo reads to us a diary entry she wrote from the all-anticipated day that she finally got her driver’s license. She looks back on it, and even reflects in the entry herself, on the liberty of obtaining her license after feeling the prolonged weight it held and symbolized in her relationship at the time. She describes the feelings of guilt she experienced with being the younger half of the relationship and how when she ultimately got her license, after the end of the relationship, the freedom of driving coupled with the freedom she was beginning to experience as her heart’s hold on her ex began to loosen. She then sits down with fellow singer and friend, Jacob Collier, to discuss the motivation and fears behind writing a song like “drivers license.” She admits that “the worst part of being in love is having something to lose,” and that after the turbulent success that was “drivers license,” a song built on heartbreak and loss, she was “terrified” of no longer “mak[ing] a good album” since she will not “be devastated for the rest of [her] life.”
The documentary’s performance of “drivers license” strays from the original format of the road trip-style plot, starting out with her very first recording of the song and then transitioning into pieced together clips from various performances of the song in rehearsals, during the filming of her music video, at awards shows, music festivals, talk shows, etc. It creates a build up that is sure to swell a feeling of pride for the young artist as you watch her success build with each new clip. The song ends with a snippet from the end of her performance at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, where you see and hear the sprawling crowd sing the lyrics back to her and you truly feel the impact of the song both on the fans and Olivia herself.
In tandem with the album, the documentary draws to a conclusion with a performance of the final track, “hope ur ok.” The road trip of the film has reached the final destination of California, with Rodrigo and her band set up on the beach to sing the closing song that Oliviq chose specifically to end the album on a “hopeful note.” She recounts this decision as wanting to express the idea of “so much hope in ending a relationship and starting a new chapter” in comparison to her more angsty and mournful songs of a failed relationship and the stress under the public eye. She goes on further to reflect upon the creation of her album as a whole, and the rewarding feeling of turning heartbreak and devastation into something she’s proud of.She feels she has grown five years worth in the one year or so of forming her album, and in the end, she says, it was just wanting to tell people what was going on, in the “depths of [her] heart and in the back of [her] head.” She feels she has grown five years worth in the one year or so of forming her album
Since my initial viewing, I have shamelessly gone back to watch the film three more times. As an amateur songwriting myself who finds the utmost appreciation in lyrical composition, watching Rodrigo detail the method and means of composing each of her songs was an incredibly provoking and relatable experience. I find as artists, especially songwriters, there is such a delicate and challenging attention that must be had when diving into those difficult emotions and trying to set them to the perfect prose for listeners, making sure they are as impactful to you as they are to the audience. In what I would describe as the truest definition of being a songwriter of personal storytelling, Olivia confesses that at the time “nobody understood how [she] was feeling or related to it, and so… by writing songs about exactly how [she] felt, [she] was creating, like, a friend.” Listening to Olivia put exactly into words how it feels to be a songwriter of personal storytelling, it was a strong, connecting feeling that I think will stick with me for a good chunk of my life, if not forever.
“driving home 2 u” is now streaming exclusively on Disney +.