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By bringing the authenticity of her life to her relatable songs, Olivia Rodrigo has achieved record-breaking success. Her 2021 smash hit "Driver's License" and subsequent singles "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U" made the singer/songwriter the youngest artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, and the first artist to have their first three singles debut in the Top Ten of that chart. These extraordinarily popular songs paved the way for Rodrigo's multi-platinum, Grammy-winning debut album, Sour. Its heartbroken, defiant, and witty mix of pop, folk, and alternative rock captured the highs and lows of a young woman fearlessly expressing who she is, how she feels, and what she wants -- themes she approached with more maturity on 2023's Grammy-nominated GUTS and its chart-topping single "Vampire."

While growing up in Temecula, California, Rodrigo's first love was singing. She started vocal lessons in kindergarten and took up piano soon after; by age 12, she was playing guitar. At the suggestion of her vocal coach, she pursued acting, and she appeared in productions at her elementary and middle schools -- experiences that led her to seek professional acting jobs. In 2016, she was cast as Paige Olvera in in the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark. It was an opportunity that led to Rodrigo winning the lead role of Nini Salazar-Roberts in the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a mockumentary-style show that follows the on- and off-stage drama that happens when the student body of East High puts on a production of High School Musical: The Musical. When the show's creators -- which included writer and Broadway librettist Tim Federle -- learned Rodrigo was a songwriter, they encouraged her to pen original songs for the series. Written in Rodrigo's living room during finals week of her sophomore year, "All I Want" garnered millions of streams after the show's debut in November 2019 and entered the U.S. and Canada Hot 100 singles charts in January 2020. Rodrigo also collaborated with her co-star Joshua Bassett on the duet "Just for a Moment."

In the wake of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series' success, she continued to work on her own music with producer Dan Nigro (who also collaborated with Carly Rae Jepsen and Sky Ferreira), looking to the confessional songwriting of Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers, and especially Taylor Swift for inspiration. After she signed with Interscope and Geffen in 2020, Rodrigo's debut single, "Driver's License," arrived in January 2021 and quickly topped charts around the world. This included the Billboard Hot 100, making her the youngest artist to debut at number one on that chart. Along with breaking several streaming records, the single was a multi-platinum success in the U.S. and Canada and went platinum in several other countries. That April, her second single, "Deja Vu," appeared, and its debut at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 made her the first artist in history to have her first two singles debut within the Top Ten. A third single, "Good 4 U," arrived in May. Like "Driver's License," it topped the Billboard Hot 100, and Rodrigo became the first artist in Billboard's history to have their first three singles debut in the Top Ten of that chart.

In turn, May 2021's Sour became the first debut album to feature two singles that topped the Billboard Hot 100 upon release. Initially intended to be an EP, the album mixed pop, alt-rock, and folk and took inspiration from No Doubt, the White Stripes, Alanis Morrissette, and Kacey Musgraves, among others. Co-written by Rodrigo and Nigro, Sour was hailed for its genre-defying sound and candid songwriting. It was a massive global success, becoming the second best-selling album in the world in 2021. In the U.S., Sour debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, ultimately spending five weeks total in that spot (an accomplishment that made it 2021's longest-running number one album by a female artist) and 52 weeks in the Top Ten, earning multiple platinum certifications along the way. Shortly after Sour's release, all of its tracks appeared in the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100, with "Traitor" becoming its fourth single to debut in the Top Ten. In the U.K., Sour debuted at number one the same week "Good 4 U" topped the U.K. Singles chart, making Rodrigo the youngest solo artist to have the top-selling release on both charts. The album also topped the charts in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where it spent ten consecutive weeks in the peak position.

As Sour broke chart records, Rodrigo's concert film Sour Prom premiered in June 2021. That December, she launched her world tour, performed in Hope for the Holidays, Musicians on Call's second annual virtual concert for hospital patients, won the People's Choice Award for Album of the Year, and was named Time Magazine's Entertainer of the Year. Sour and Rodrigo's accolades continued into 2022. At that year's Grammy Awards, she won the awards for Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance for "Driver's License," and Best Pop Vocal album for Sour (Rodrigo was nominated in all four of the general Grammy categories, making her the second-youngest artist after Billie Eilish to earn this recognition). She also won the Juno Award for International Album of the Year; the Brit Award for International Song of the Year; seven Billboard Music Awards including Top Billboard 200 album, Top New Artist, and Top Female Artist; and the ASCAP Award for Songwriter of the Year.

March 2022 saw the premiere of Driving Home 2 U, a documentary chronicling the creation of Sour. That April, Rodrigo kicked off her first headlining concert tour. She covered Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" at every show, and Lavigne joined her in performing the song at the Toronto date. At her Glastonbury Festival appearance that June, Rodrigo and Lily Allen performed "Fuck You" as a response to the overruling of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. In September 2022, Rodrigo departed High School Musical: The Musical: The Series at the end of its third season.

At the end of the year and into 2023, Rodrigo did more charity work, participating in the third annual Venture Into Cures virtual fundraising event for families with epidermolysis bullosa and other rare diseases, the third annual Musicians on Call virtual concert, and the MusiCares Foundation Charity Relief Auction. She released "Vampire," her first single in two years, that June. Her third single to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, it also topped the charts in the U.K., Australia, Ireland, Canada, and New Zealand. That song and August's multinational Top Ten hit "Bad Idea Right?" appeared on September 2023's GUTS. Produced by Nigro and recorded at his garage studio, Rodrigo's second album built on Sour's wry rock and sweeping ballads as she took stock of her tumultuous teen years. The album once again topped the U.S. and U.K. charts as well as those of 12 other countries, while all of its songs appeared in the Top 40 of the Hot 100 Singles Chart in the U.S. GUTS was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 66th Grammy Awards.

That November, Rodrigo's "Can't Catch Me Now" appeared on Music from and Inspired by the Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes; the song ultimately won the 2023 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song in a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Horror Film. Later in November, the four bonus tracks featured on limited edition vinyl releases of the album were issued as the vinyl EP That November, Rodrigo's "Can't Catch Me Now" appeared on Music from and Inspired by the Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes; the song ultimately won the 2023 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song in a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Horror Film. Later in November, the four bonus tracks featured on limited edition vinyl releases of the album were issued as the vinyl EP GUTS: The Secret Tracks for Record Store Day Black Friday. While on tour in March 2024, Rodrigo released GUTS (spilled), a deluxe edition of the album with five bonus tracks. The following month, she made a surprise appearance at Coachella, performing "Bathwater" with No Doubt during their set. Rodrigo and Nigro were also named ASCAP's 2024 Pop Music Songwriters of the Year, marking their second time winning the award. ~ Heather Phares

Rachel Zegler is a singer and actress with a warm, expressive voice and an operatic range that catapulted her into lead roles in Hollywood and on Broadway straight out of high school. Best known for playing Maria in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the classic musical West Side Story, Zegler was only 16 when she responded to the open casting call, leading to her first film role and a 2022 Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or comedy. She sang on-screen again in 2023's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes a year before making her Broadway debut in 2024's Romeo + Juliet (featuring music composed by Jack Antonoff). A solo ballad from the show performed by Zegler in the style of contemporary R&B-pop, "Man of the House" appeared as a single in conjunction with its premiere.

Born on May 3, 2001, in Hackensack, New Jersey, Rachel Zegler was named after Rachel Green, a character from the TV sitcom Friends. Of Colombian and Polish decent, she faced discrimination as a child, and took to the theater at a young age, landing her first acting role in Fiddler on the Roof at the age of 12. Around that time, she started taking acting and voice lessons. Zegler played Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, and Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical, among other lead roles while in high school. She'd started her own YouTube channel by the time she was 14, and when Steven Spielberg posted an open casting call for Maria on Twitter in early 2018, Zegler responded with clips of her singing "Tonight" and "I Feel Pretty." (She had played Maria in an Englewood, New Jersey production of West Side Story a year prior.) Zegler was eventually selected from a field of 30,000 applicants.

West Side Story hit U.S. movie theaters in December 2021, with Zegler starring opposite Ansel Elgort (Tony) and Ariana DeBose (Anita). The following year, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards (DeBose won for supporting actress), and Zegler took home the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy, becoming the youngest to ever win the award, at 20 years of age. After an appearance in the action film Shazam! Fury of the Gods in early 2023, Zegler portrayed Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which involved performances of country-folk songs alongside the fictional Covey Band. A soundtrack album of music from and inspired by the film and heavily featuring Zegler hit the Billboard country and soundtrack charts.

Next up for the singer was her Broadway debut. While West Side Story was a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, she played Juliet herself in 2024's Romeo + Juliet, a new musical opening that October and featuring incidental music and songs by Grammy-winning pop musician Jack Antonoff (Bleachers, Fun.). A solo by Zegler, "Man of the House," was released as a single the same month. That December, she starred in the comedy-horror film Y2K. ~ Marcy Donelson

A spirited country-folk and Americana outfit based out of Lubbock, Texas, Flatland Cavalry draw inspiration from Lone Star State contemporaries like Turnpike Troubadours, Wade Bowen, and Randy Rogers, as well as folk-pop artists such as the Avett Brothers and John Mayer. The group's music often puts fiddle and acoustic guitar up front to give the tunes a strong, rootsy influence tied to the past, but the melodies have a modern feel and are powered by a rock & roll backbeat. The band made a strong full-length debut with 2016's Humble Folks, while a few years of touring helped them achieve a tighter and more unified sound on subsequent releases like 2019's Homeland Insecurity and 2021's Welcome to Countryland. They made their Interscope debut with Wandering Star in 2023.

Founded in 2012 by longtime friends Cleto Cordero (guitar, vocals) and Jason Albers (drums), Flatland Cavalry eventually blossomed into a five-piece with the additions of Jonathan Saenz (bass), Laura Jane (fiddle), and Reid Dillion (guitar). After raising recording costs with a crowdfunding campaign, the band released their debut EP, Come May, independently in 2015; they were quickly scooped up by California-based booking agency Atomic Music Group. The following year saw Flatland Cavalry issue their first full-length outing, Humble Folks. The album fared well, rising to 38 on the nationwide Top Country Albums chart and 17 on the Americana/Folk Albums survey. The group toured heavily in support of Humble Folks, and changed their management to the Texas-based firm DBL Music Group.

By the time Flatland Cavalry issued their second album, 2019's Homeland Insecurity, Laura Jane had left the band, with Wesley Hall taking over on fiddle. Working quickly, the group issued a string of singles like "Sober Heart of Mine" and "War with My Mind" ahead of 2021's Welcome to Countryland, which they recorded at Nashville's legendary Sound Emporium Studios. The largely acoustic Songs to Keep You Warm EP appeared the following year.

In 2023, the band returned with their third full-length and first on Interscope Records, Wandering Star. Featured on the album was the song "Mornings with You," a duet between Cordero and his wife, singer Kaitlin Butts. ~ James Christopher Monger & Mark Deming