Olivia Rodrigo: I don’t think I am an overnight success

Olivia Rodrigo has said she does not think she is an overnight success, having “worked so hard for so long”.

The US pop sensation, 18, has enjoyed a breakout year, with her debut album Sour topping the charts in the UK and US.

After winning Apple Music Awards for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year, she said: “I think my whole life is just like changing in an instant and I don’t think my success by any means was like overnight just because you know, I’ve been writing songs since I was nine-years-old and working so hard for so long.”

Rodrigo was a Disney Channel actress whose debut single Drivers Licence won song of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards in September.

Talking to Apple Music 1 about the songs success, she said: “I think it was really cathartic for me because that song was so personal and such an intimate part of my experience and my heart and so putting it out in general and just letting it go and being like ‘this is the world’s now, this is not mine’ was like such an important part of my healing journey and to like watch other people relate to it made me feel so much more like less alone.

“I remember there was a distinct moment in my life when that album went from something that was really depressing and sad to me to something that represented triumph and that was really special.

“I remember driving around and blasting it and smiling and feeling such intense joy and like pride in like the work that I created and so I think that’s really special for that to turn into something I’m really proud of.”

Rodrigo also said she has “always been an over-sharer”, but liked writing “brutally honest songs”.

She added: “I think that’s the fun thing about making your first record is you’re kind of like not caught up in it, you’re kind of just writing how you feel and writing to get it out.”

Rodrigo has been named Time magazine’s Entertainer Of The Year.