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Obsessed with "drivers license" yet? High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star Olivia Rodrigo released the song a couple days ago, and we can't get enough. It's her first song that she did independent of any of her acting work, and the song has already hit #1 on Spotify's Global and US streaming charts. Plus, it even has Taylor Swift's stamp of approval.

Fans think there's some *major* tea about Olivia and Joshua Bassett and that the song could be about their breakup. Olivia and Joshua never confirmed that they ever dated or broke up, but they were rumored to be dating while filming HSMTMTS together. They commented on cute love songs each other wrote on Instagram and wrote the love song "Just For a Moment" together for the show. The cast has also said that the big "I love you" scene from the show was mostly improvised by Joshua and made Olivia *truly* tear up a little during the scene.

But there's more to the story. If they dated at any point, it seems that they split sometime in the summer of 2020 because that's when Olivia posted the first snippet of what later became "drivers license." In August, she posted this TikTok captioned "and that's on failed relationships" and later posted a photo of her and a friend wearing "Dump Him" shirts on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Olivia Rodrigo (@olivia.rodrigo)

This was around the same time Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter started to be seen together in public. This went on for a while, and they even dressed up together as Shark Boy and Lava Girl for Halloween. Some fans think that the HSMTMTS cast is on Olivia's side of the breakup because when Joshua and Olivia both announced the release of their new songs on the same day, most of the cast members commented on Olivia's post but there were just *crickets* on Joshua's. Only one cast member commented on his.

Image: https://www.instagram.com/olivia.rodrigo/

So back to the song. If you listen to the first snippet that Olivia posted in July, the lyrics towards the beginning are "And you're probably with that brunette girl / The one I always thought about." But in the version Olivia released, she changed the lyric to "And you're probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt." She also describes the girl in the song as someone so much older than her, and—surprise, surprise—Sabrina Carpenter is blonde *and* four years older than Olivia. 

can we talk about the way she sings “guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me” OLIVIA RODRIGO STOP IT RIGHT NOW IM SO EMOTIONAL #driverslicense pic.twitter.com/1eBkcrBQHx

— stella ♡ stream drivers license (@blveberryskies) January 8, 2021

Another lyric that clued fans in on the relationship drama was the line "Guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me." This line had also been changed from the line in the original Instagram snippet, which was "And I don't believe you when you say I did nothing wrong." This line could be a reference to Joshua's song "Anyone Else," which he released the music video for this past July. 

Image: https://www.instagram.com/olivia.rodrigo/

Joshua mentioned in an interview that the song was about falling for a close friend who was already taken, which could be a possible reference to Olivia's previous relationship with Bizaardvark co-star Ethan Wacker. Their relationship ended sometime in the summer of 2019, and HSMTMTS started filming early in 2019. So the timeline checks out. 

Some fans did some sleuthing on the "Anyone Else" music video and noticed a hand in the music video with white acrylics. In June 2020, when Olivia and Joshua could have been going through a split, Sabrina had white acrylics and Olivia didn't. So the timeline checks out—again. 

when i tell you i’m SOBBING #driverslicense pic.twitter.com/cuHCGKkKJG

— charlotte ✧ (@imthemirrorball) January 8, 2021

Olivia also mentioned in a video on Instagram that she was with Joshua the first time that she drove before she even had her permit, so something like a driver's license could have an emotional connection to Joshua. 

Neither Olivia nor Joshua have confirmed any dating or breakup rumors, so it's important to note that this is all fan speculation. For now, the only thing we know for sure is that we'll all have "drivers license" on repeat *all* week.

Have you added "drivers license" to your playlist yet? Let us know on Twitter @girlslifemag!

All GIFs via Giphy. Slider image: instagram.com/olivia.rodrigo.

by Erin Jeon | 1/13/2021