Olivia Rodrigo explains how Selena Gomez helped her after branching out from Disney

Georgina Smith
Selena Gomez next to Olivia Rodrigo

Singer Olivia Rodrigo has revealed the advice that fellow artist Selena Gomez gave her after blowing up in the music industry following her acting work for Disney.

18-year-old Olivia Rodrigo has proven to be one of the biggest success stories in the music industry over the past year. Originally she was best known for playing a starring role in the Disney show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, but after releasing her song ‘Drivers License’ in January 2021, she blew up online in a huge way.

Since the enormous success of Drivers License she has gone on to release her full debut album Sour, and the songs have gone to smash records across the globe, gaining an extraordinary number of fans in the meantime.

Olivia Rodrigo in an Instagram picture
Olivia Rodrigo’s Drivers License single broke records and dominated the internet.

Thanks to the insane speed at which she shot into the spotlight, there’s no doubt that she had a lot to get used to in a short space of time, and in an interview with Variety, she shared some of the advice she was given by Selena Gomez.

Selena has had a similar journey to Olivia, in that she also used to star on the Disney channel in the show ‘Wizards of Waverly Place.’

“I met Selena, and she was so kind,” she explained. “She talked to me a lot about prioritizing mental health, which I think is really important in this industry. All of us were in the limelight very young. … That can be taxing on your psyche and can bring about all these weird issues.”

Olivia Rodrigo holds her album
The star’s album ‘Sour’ has been a huge success.

Olivia also expanded on people’s curiosity about her use of swear words in her songwriting despite being a Disney star, saying: “People ask me all the time, ‘Oh, did you just swear so that people would know that you’re not a Disney kid anymore?’” She went on to explain that “it truly isn’t a calculated decision in [her] head” and that she just tends to have a “very dirty mouth.”

With the young star’s album appearing highly on charts, it looks like her popularity will only continue to rise.

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About The Author

Georgina was formerly an entertainment writer for Dexerto. She covered all aspects of influencer culture on TikTok and more, including creators such as Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae. She also wrote about hit reality shows such as Love Island and Below Deck.