Popular singer Olivia Rodrigo has reportedly already given up millions of dollars in royalties to Taylor Swift and Paramore after she gave them songwriting credit on songs from her ‘Sour’ album.
While 18-year-old Olivia Rodrigo was originally best known for her role in ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,’ she exploded in popularity at the start of 2021 when she released her song ‘Drivers License.’
The emotional song was a huge hit, and propelled Rodrigo into global fame — and she certainly wasn’t a one-hit-wonder. She has since gone on to release her debut album ‘Sour,’ which has stormed through the charts with tracks like ‘Good 4 U’ and ‘Deja Vu.’
But after many people pointed out the large similarities between her song ‘Good 4 U’ and Paramore’s ‘Misery Business,’ some accused the star of ‘copying,’ leading to her giving them songwriting credit. She also did this with Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent for the song ‘Deja Vu.’
Olivia Rodrigo’s song ‘Driver’s License’ scored #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 over names like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.
Now, a report from Billboard has claimed that the young star has given up millions in royalties due to adding the songwriting credits on her hugely popular tracks.
The report claimed that Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro could be receiving somewhere around $1.2 million.
As for Swift, Billboard predicts that she’s earned around $325,678 in royalties from ‘Deja Vu,’ with Antonoff estimated to be taking $260,542, and Clark taking $65,135.
Rodrigo has cited Taylor Swift as one of her biggest inspirations.
While some weren’t happy with the star for ‘copying’ music, others have come out in full force to defend her. Maroon 5’s Adam Levine said: “I do think that we can probably meet this with a little more compassion and understanding,” adding that he thinks “it’s kind of a cool thing to introduce a whole generation of people to different musical ideas.”
Despite the drama surrounding ‘copying’ claims, Rodrigo is certainly still doing very well career-wise, with the popularity of her album continuing to rise.