Olivia Rodrigo has broken a record after her album You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love hit number one. A week after its release, the American singer has achieved the biggest opening week of her career.
Record-Breaking Sales
Rodrigo has become the youngest international artist to break 100,000 UK albums in release week for more than two decades, according to the Official Charts Company. Her album shifted almost 103,000 chart units. In comparison, her debut album Sour reached 51,000 units, while her follow-up Guts hit 60,000 units in their respective opening weeks.
At just 23, Rodrigo is now the youngest international artist to shift more than 100,000 albums in release week for over 20 years, since Britney Spears' Greatest Hits: My Prerogative in 2004.
Chart Success
As well as securing a hat-trick of number one albums, her latest release has also become the biggest first week for any international album release this year in the UK. Rodrigo has also topped the Official Record Store Chart and the Official Album Vinyl Chart.
Rodrigo expressed her gratitude: “Thank you so much for this number one album award. It means so much to me. I wrote so many of these songs in the UK, so it makes it extra special. Thank you all for listening, I appreciate it so much. I can’t wait to put this on my mantel!”
Album Chart Highlights
In second spot on the album charts is Michael Jackson’s greatest hits compilation The Essential. Rounding out the top five are Harry Styles with Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally, Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving, and Avalanche by Embrace.
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift has topped the single charts with I Knew It, I Knew You, with Rodrigo holding the second, third, and fifth spots with her singles Stupid Song, The Cure, and Drop Dead. Rein Me In by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean is in fourth spot.
Album Inspiration
On the day of her album’s release, Rodrigo posted on Instagram: “The record is a time capsule of a relationship in all its highs and lows. It’s my attempt at capturing love from both sides of the coin. The hope and the disappointment. The insanity and the clarity. The entanglement and the unravelling.”
Rodrigo released her debut album Sour in 2021 and followed it up with Guts two years later. Speaking to the BBC, Rodrigo shared how the tone of the album changed from her initial plans. “I really wanted to capture romantic joy and pleasure for the first time, because my last two albums were very heartbroken and really angsty,” she said. But she added it instead now focuses on a “love story that falls apart”.
