Olivia Rodrigo "the bels"
Apparently, the former child actress-turned-contemporary alt-pop singer Olivia Rodrigo was able to write a song before she was quite able to spell. On Christmas Eve in 2021, Rodrigo posted a snippet of an unreleased song titled "the bels" (her spelling) on Instagram. She wrote:
"in honor of Christmas Eve may I present to you my very first Christmas song “the bels” written by 5 year old me lol. happy holidays!!!!"
The following year, on December 17, 2022, the full version of the song, running 2 minutes and 18 seconds, was shared by Rodrigo through a link sent by e-mail to members of her fan club. Here is the link to the full downloadable track, which is not commercially available on streaming services:
https://digital.umusic.com/livmas-thebels
Rodrigo certainly does sound like a small child singing on this track, although the hip-hop beats and bits of instrumentation were added in post-production. (According to the math, a vocal recording by 5-year-old Olivia would have taken place in or around 2008). The words and music certainly fit a "cute" holiday tune that was written by a kid for kids. Still, I'm guessing that little Olivia had plenty of help with the songwriting aspect as well, because even these child-like lyrics and simple melodies sound rather advanced for a child who was only of kindergarten age:
But, so what? "the bels" is what it is: a childhood creation by a future chart-topping, Grammy-winning musical artist. And, like she said, it's her very first Christmas song! (She hasn't released one commercially as of yet). It's a likably innocent Easy-Bake Oven cookie of a song about waiting for Santa Claus to come on Christmas, making references to other symbols of the holiday (i.e. ornaments, candy canes, and dancing gingerbread people). Still, I can't help but think that I detect early signs of the edgy-pop-star attitude of Rodrigo's recent recordings when I listen to this one. (Even the lower-case misspelling of the title suggests it...).
"in honor of Christmas Eve may I present to you my very first Christmas song “the bels” written by 5 year old me lol. happy holidays!!!!"
The following year, on December 17, 2022, the full version of the song, running 2 minutes and 18 seconds, was shared by Rodrigo through a link sent by e-mail to members of her fan club. Here is the link to the full downloadable track, which is not commercially available on streaming services:
https://digital.umusic.com/livmas-thebels
Rodrigo certainly does sound like a small child singing on this track, although the hip-hop beats and bits of instrumentation were added in post-production. (According to the math, a vocal recording by 5-year-old Olivia would have taken place in or around 2008). The words and music certainly fit a "cute" holiday tune that was written by a kid for kids. Still, I'm guessing that little Olivia had plenty of help with the songwriting aspect as well, because even these child-like lyrics and simple melodies sound rather advanced for a child who was only of kindergarten age:
But, so what? "the bels" is what it is: a childhood creation by a future chart-topping, Grammy-winning musical artist. And, like she said, it's her very first Christmas song! (She hasn't released one commercially as of yet). It's a likably innocent Easy-Bake Oven cookie of a song about waiting for Santa Claus to come on Christmas, making references to other symbols of the holiday (i.e. ornaments, candy canes, and dancing gingerbread people). Still, I can't help but think that I detect early signs of the edgy-pop-star attitude of Rodrigo's recent recordings when I listen to this one. (Even the lower-case misspelling of the title suggests it...).
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