Photo: Getty Images
Following her massive success with her debut album Sour, fans worried Olivia Rodrigo would not return for season three of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The 18-year-old Grammy nominee starred on the popular Disney+ show as Nini Salazar-Roberts for its first two seasons. Though Disney confirmed the show was coming back for a third season, it remained unclear whether Rodrigo would be able to reprise her role with her busy schedule.
On Thursday (December 9), Time named Rodrigo its Entertainer of the Year for 2021. In the magazine's accompanying profile, Rodrigo confirmed she would return to High School Musical: The Musical: The Series when it resumes filming in January 2022. While chatting with the 'Drivers License' singer about her career priorities, journalist Lucy Feldman made a blink-and-you'll-miss confirmation about Rodrigo's future on the series. "She’ll return for Season 3 of the High School Musical series, which starts filming in January, and maybe she’ll act more in the future. But music is her priority," Feldman wrote.
While music is Rodrigo's top priority, there's one aspect of the process she values even more than singing—her songwriting. “Songwriting is the thing I take most seriously in my life. It’s the most personally gratifying too," she shared. “I literally wrote them in my bedroom,” she added of the tracks on Sour. “And I think you can tell.”
Taking a page out of Taylor Swift's book, Rodrigo has taken steps to ensure she will be able to own the masters of her own songs. “You definitely have to be a businesswoman to be a musician,” she said. “There’s a path for me to have a stake in the music and art I create, which is only fair."
She also addressed accusations of plagiarism, which Rodrigo takes seriously as an artist writing her own songs. “It was really frustrating to see people discredit and deny my creativity,” she said.