Olivia Rodrigo has been announced as the latest artist to receive a BRIT Billion Award by the BPI, the representative voice for the UK’s world leading record labels and music companies.
The BRIT Billion award celebrates Olivia’s achievement in surpassing the landmark of one billion career UK streams - as calculated by the Official Charts Company. Olivia was presented with the prestigious award while in London promoting her latest single ‘bad idea right?’, as fans await her second album ‘GUTS’, due for release on 8 September 2023.
Winner of ‘International Song of the Year’ with good 4 u at the BRIT Awards 2022, the 2021 Awards saw the first live TV performance of Olivia’s 2x Platinum-certified single drivers license. In May 2021 at age 18, Olivia became the youngest solo artist in history to claim the Official UK Chart Double as her debut album SOUR and third single good 4 u reigned supreme. Continuing to smash Official Chart records, the next month saw Olivia become the first female solo artist to claim three simultaneous UK Top 5 singles with good 4 u, deja vu and traitor.
Officially launched on 4th May 2023, the first wave of 13 artists to receive the BRIT Billion award included global icons ABBA, Coldplay, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, pioneering rap and hip-hop artists AJ Tracey and Headie One, and chart-dominating pop artists and singer-songwriters Anne-Marie, Ellie Goulding, George Ezra, Lewis Capaldi, RAYE, Rita Ora and Sam Smith. Recent recipients include Lana Del Rey, who was presented with the award backstage at her BST Hyde Park headline show, Queen, Wizkid, Becky Hill, and James Arthur, who was presented with his award live on BBC’s The One Show from presenters Alex Scott and Roman Kemp.
The BRIT Billion award reflects the extent to which streaming has transformed the music landscape for artists and fans alike over the past decade – more than 85% of the UK’s recorded music consumption now takes place through streaming, and in 2022 there were a record 160 billion audio streams in the UK in total.
