For this yr’s replace of our ongoing Biggest Pop Star by Yr challenge, Billboard is counting down our employees picks for the highest 10 pop stars of 2023 all this week. At No. 7, we bear in mind the yr in Olivia Rodrigo — who averted the sophomore stoop and continued to outline each pop and rock stardom for her technology with one of many yr’s most acclaimed albums.
“It’s a whole lot of stress,” Olivia Rodrigo admitted to Billboard upon the June launch of “Vampire” — the lead single to her sophomore album, which was one among most anxiously awaited albums of 2023. “I’d be mendacity if I mentioned that I didn’t really feel that.”
It’d be one factor if Rodrigo had adopted Bitter — her 2021 debut that includes smashes like “Drivers License” and “good 4 u,” which become one of the vital profitable pop albums of the last decade — with any kind of stopgap singles or deluxe-edition goodies for followers. However her resolution to restrict her studio output, because the uncommon pop star content material to gap away till their subsequent full-length assertion is prepared for unveiling, constructed huge anticipation (and expectation) for its follow-up. “It’s very nerve-racking,” Rodrigo continued. “I haven’t put out music in, what, two years now?”
Billboard’s Biggest Pop Stars of 2023:
Introduction & Honorable Mentions | Rookie of the Yr: Peso Pluma | Comeback of the Yr: Miley Cyrus | No. 10: Drake | No. 9: Doja Cat | No. 8: Dangerous Bunny
“Vampire” dramatically ended that drought. After some social media teases, the one arrived as a gut-punch to a bloodsucking, fame-f–king ex on the finish of June, and demonstrated that Rodrigo wasn’t going to trend-chase along with her sophomore effort. A theatrical piano ballad with a gradual build-up, halting chorus and a number of tempo modifications, “Vampire” sounded in contrast to anything on pop radio upon its arrival — however followers reveled within the outsized scale, critics have been on board, and the music debuted atop the Billboard Scorching 100, formally saying that one of many decade’s brightest new stars had returned.
Zamar Velez
Nick Walker
“Dangerous Thought, Proper?” adopted in August, and scratched the itch for “good 4 u” followers hoping that extra guitar-heavy punk leanings have been on the best way. Along with scoring a prime 10 debut on the Scorching 100, the second single refined Rodrigo’s pop-rock aesthetic — the guitar chugs and blurted-out verses a bit extra scrumptious, the backing harmonies and refrain flare-up a bit of extra fast.
And when Guts, Rodrigo’s sophomore album, arrived in full in September, the total scope of that creative evolution was clear. As soon as once more working alongside producer-songwriter Dan Nigro, Rodrigo made certain each post-childhood concern, romantic agitation and cynical realization landed with emotional readability and instrumental pressure, whether or not by a thicket of guitar fuzz or superbly restrained balladry. Guts scored a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with a barely greater equal albums unit complete than Bitter, whereas additionally receiving rave critiques upon its launch; followers saved the brand new full-length on repeat, whereas critics confirmed that Rodrigo had averted the sophomore stoop.
Constructing upon the momentum of the album launch, Rodrigo introduced the Guts World Tour, which can deliver her across the globe as an area headliner for the primary time, with one of many hottest tickets of 2024’s touring slate. In the meantime, she stayed seen after the album’s launch – significantly with third single “Get Him Again!,” which harnessed an analogous guitar-crunch vitality as “Dangerous Thought, Proper?” “Get Him Again!” obtained a pronounced promotional push, full with an MTV Video Music Awards efficiency, Apple iPhone industrial synch and even an look within the trailer for the upcoming Imply Ladies musical movie adaptation.
The accolades piled up for Guts as 2023 began to wind down: the album is throughout critics’ year-end lists, together with on the prime of Billboard’s employees listing of the perfect albums of 2023. After successful greatest new artist on the Grammy Awards in 2022, Rodrigo will attempt to snag the opposite three Huge 4 classes: Guts is up for album of the yr, and “Vampire” is nominated for each file of the yr and music of the yr, as a part of Rodrigo’s six complete 2024 nominations. Rodrigo spent December showcasing her Guts materials on platforms like Saturday Evening Stay and NPR’s Tiny Desk Live performance – though Rodrigo has already supplied a stopgap single that she resisted between Bitter and Guts. “Can’t Catch Me Now,” the heartfelt soundtrack single from The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, continues to develop as successful outdoors of the movie franchise following its November launch.
The stress that Rodrigo felt initially of 2023 was comprehensible: Bitter was the kind of debut album that checked each industrial and significant field for a brand new pop star, and nothing was promised as she ready to observe it up. Along with her second album period properly underway, nonetheless, Rodrigo has confirmed herself as a sturdy, constantly thrilling voice on the forefront of fashionable music. She continues to be solely 20 years previous, however Rodrigo has demonstrated outstanding poise as she has crafted a singular profession, continued to attain hits, transcended style and deployed her artistry throughout a wide range of mediums. Early subsequent yr, she’ll compete towards Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus in key Grammy classes, and he or she has adeptly absorbed items of these artists’ respective careers — from the uncompromising songwriting, to the chart consistency, to the power to rock out for pop followers and have them clamoring for extra.
Repeatedly, Rodrigo meets, and exceeds, the expectations positioned upon her. And due to that, her future couldn’t be brighter.