Everything is "A-O-K" for Tai Verdes and Olivia Rodrigo, who are among the prestigious Recording Industry Association of America's class of 2021 for achieving first-time Gold, Platinum or multi-Platinum certification for an album or song.
Olivia's debut album, SOUR, not only went RIAA double-Platinum after more than 350,000 copies sold in the U.S., it also produced several top-selling songs. The 18-year-old's debut single "drivers license" went 4x Platinum in 2021, meaning over four million copies were sold since its January release. "Good 4 u" and "deja vu" also went multi-Platinum this year after selling over three million and two million copies, respectively.
Olivia also scored Platinum certification for "favorite crime," "happier," "brutal" and "traitor," for sales of over a million copies.
Tai also made the class of 2021 this year after his hits "A-O-K" and "Stuck in the Middle" both sold over 500,000 copies and earned RIAA-certified Gold status.
"These awards have really shown me how powerful it can be when you tell your story to your audience. After putting so much time into trying to develop my own story and my own music, the results aren't debatable," Tal told Billboard on Wednesday. "I love how far things have come in terms of self-promotion, social media, and how much power is in the hands of the artist."
In all, 43 artists were inducted into the class of 2021. Sales boomed in 2021, with the RIAA reporting that music sales ballooned past $7.1 billion in the first half of 2021, which is a 27% leap over last year's numbers. This year's numbers were bolstered by streaming, which accounted for 84 percent of sales.
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