Olivia Rodrigo Discusses Synesthesia: 'Driver's License Is Purple!'

Olivia Rodrigo recently opened up about the role her synesthesia plays in her creative process in the making of her debut album.

Olivia Rodrigo Discusses Synesthesia: ‘Driver’s License Is Purple!’

It’s no secret our favorite teen queen Olivia Rodrigo loves creating a colorful aesthetic!

The 19-year-old sky rocketed to fame last year thanks to her eternally relatable tunes known for capturing the essence of being a teenager.

Her heartfelt and reflective tunes about first loves turned ‘sour’ are just the beginning of Rodrigo’s incredible ability to create and preserve an eternal feeling of teenhood.

The cover of Rodrigo’s smash hit debut album “SOUR” memorably features Rodrigo standing in front of a purple background, and the LP is also available in a shade of violent.

Color Her World: Inside Rodrigo’s Penchant For Color

Rodrigo’s love for a colorful aesthetic goes beyond contributing to one of last year’s most memorable album covers!

She is one of many people around the world who have synesthesia.

According to WebMD, Synesthesia is a Greek word, and it means to “Perceive together.”

The unique ability allows one to “Experience one of your senses through another.”

So, as she told Vogue per People magazine, Rodrigo’s synesthesia allows her to “sense a color” while listening to music!

She was quick to illustrate the smorgasboard of colors which helped her see the songs on her first record.

“Many songs on ‘SOUR’ are purple, like ‘driver’s license’ is purple. But ‘good 4 u’ is like a purpley-blue,” she added.

Other tracks on the record showcase a variety of colors!

“‘jealously jealously’ is like bright red. ‘deja vu’ is like orange and pink and light purple,” she went on, describing some of the record’s more upbeat tracks.

“[‘deja vu’] is like, lighter and more pastel-y.” she also shared.

Which Fellow Singing Queen Has Synesthesia?

Rodrigo isn’t the only well-known singer who has synesthesia.

Ella ‘Lorde’ Yelich-O’Connor also draws inspiration from the ability!

The “Mood Ring” singer has spoken extensively about her synesthesia many times in the press.

According to Teen Vogue via the New York Times, Lorde’s synesthesia is in the form of “sound-to-color.”

The driving force behind Lorde’s creative process which is fueled by her synesthesia, is “About getting the actual thing to sound like what I’ve been seeing.”

Lorde’s synesthesia grants her the ability to have her songwriting process rooted in visuals!

“If a song’s colors are too oppressive or ugly, sometimes I won’t want to work on it- when we first started ‘Tennis Court,” a song from her critically acclaimed debut album 2013’s ‘Pure Heroine,’ “we just had that pad playing the chords, and it was the worst textured tan color, like really dated, and it made me feel sick, and then we figured out that prechorus, and I started the lyric, and the song changed to all these incredible greens overnight!,” she explained in the New York Times profile.

There is a specific name for Lorde’s synesthesia. It’s known as chromesthesia, as per an article in Inverse.

Her synesthesia also played a role in the creation of her wildly successful sophomore LP!

Yep, it’s THAT song!

Lorde’s second record “Melodrama” opens with “Green Light,” which her synesthesia turned out to have had “an especially strong role” in bringing the song to life. (via Inverse)

Not only does the word synesthesia look as aesthetically pleasing as the cover for Olivia Rodrigo’s “SOUR” or the music video for Lorde’s “Green Light”, it’s proven to have played a part in the creation of some of the most popular tracks of the last decade! That’s a pretty dazzling fact, if you ask us!