Drivers License
Olivia Rodrigo’s first single, drivers license, is absolutely dominating the internet right now. It seemed like overnight, hundreds of young people made TikToks about the song—from creating stories based on the lyrics, to uncovering the supposed love triangle that inspired the song, to recording their own renditions. According to Spotify’s global hits lead, Becky Bass, “we’ve never seen anything like this.” On Monday, the song set the platform's record for most streams in a day for a non-holiday song, and then on Tuesday, it beat that record with over 17.01 million listens.
Trust me when I say these numbers are bonkers. For context, the second most-streamed song on Tuesday (Bad Bunny’s Dákiti) hit 4.2 million streams. What’s so surprising to me is that Olivia Rodrigo is a fairly new artist. The rest of her Spotify songs consist of her HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES tracks, along with a few tracks from her Disney Channel show BIZAARDVARK. It’s rare that we see such a swift rise to the top, so it will be fascinating to see where she goes from here.
In other music-related news, Billie EIlish announced on Tuesday that she’s releasing a photobook of her life, which will come out in May with a recorded audiobook that will go with some of the photos. It’s already #1 on Amazon’s portrait photography bestseller list.
On Sunday, ViacomCBS decided to air the NFL wild-card game on Nickelodeon in addition to CBS, and it paid off big-time. The broadcast was the network’s most-watched football game in four years, with over 2.06 million people tuning in. Nickelodeon’s version of the game, which was between the Chicago Bears and the New Orleans Saints, included slime cannons in the endzone, lightning bolts that appeared after a pass, and dust clouds during tackles. Characters from Nickelodeon classics like RUGRATS and SPONGEBOB celebrated in the stands. The game honestly looked super entertaining—you can check out footage here.
And finally, here are two of my favorite TikToks from this week: this one that highlights how much fun the Phineas and Ferb writers had working on the show, and this video that somehow makes sky-diving look tame.
—Darlene Kenney, Marketing Assistant
