Who’s to blame?

Two artists find themselves in the midst of musical drama after song releases

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Singer Olivia Rodrigo dropped “drivers license,” a billboard hit, in the beginning of January. Soon after, it is theorized that singer Sabrina Carpenter dropped a “comeback” song.

What started as a song about a heartbroken teenage girl quickly turned into a messy feud between two young female artists, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter.

On Jan. 8, singer and actress Olivia Rodrigo released the hit “drivers license.” With the song reaching number one on global charts, it left millions of fans wondering who or what the song was truly about.

One of the many theories about the meaning of “drivers license” is about Rodrigo’s rumored ex-boyfriend, Joshua Bassett. The two were believed to be dating in 2020 while filming the Disney Plus original “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” One of the most drama-telling lines of Rodrigo’s song is “and you’re probably with that blonde girl.” This line led many other fans and me to believe she was referring to Carpenter, who had more recently had a fling with Bassett.

Their relationship did not go under the radar as they had probably hoped to avoid negative publicity. Photos of Bassett and Carpenter had surfaced of them hanging out and wearing correlating costumes on Halloween.

But shortly after the release of Rodrigo’s single, Bassett released a song titled “Lie Lie Lie.” Although there were no lyrics hinting at his song being about Rodrigo, there were many easter eggs in Bassett’s music video that fans have compared to Rodrigo’s music video.

However, after both Rodrigo and Bassett released their songs, Carpenter released her song titled “Skin.” Fans think Carpenter’s release of this song only a few short weeks after Rodrigo’s hit was in response to Rodrigo’s lyric about “the blonde girl.”

In “Skin,” Carpenter sings “maybe blonde was the only rhyme.” This line fully convinced me not only that Rodrigo’s song referred to Carpenter but also that Carpenter was being extremely petty towards Rodrigo in her new song.

Carpenter’s tone was just unsettling, seeing as Rodrigo’s line that was about her was more or less praising her for being everything Bassett wanted. This also is what was leading fans and I to fully believe “drivers license” is about this complicated love triangle.

If there were sides to be on, I would definitely be on Rodrigo’s. I feel as if Carpenter was calling out and bashing Rodrigo. While I understand Carpenter’s point of view on how she felt very upset about someone who wrote a song about her and her possible boyfriend, she probably still felt very guilty since Rodrigo was so heartbroken about the situation.

I still think Carpenter was being very childish by directly calling Rodrigo out. I just feel like there was definitely a better way to go about this situation than to publicly release a song that rubbed her new relationship in a teenage girl’s face.

In Rodrigo’s song, I can feel her pain with the lyrics because they are so relatable with young teens, which is part of the reason for its success. Rodrigo is a very talented and amazing singer. Hopefully, in the future, Rodrigo will continue to release music for all of her fans to enjoy, including me.

Though I can’t prove that this is exactly what happened, all signs point to that. I hope that in the future Rodrigo can release songs that aren’t followed by petty lyrics from other growing artists.

Anyways, stream “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo.