# Olivia O'Brien

Olivia Gail O'Brien (born November 26, 1999) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 2016 after collaborating with Gnash on the single "I Hate U, I Love U", which peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States and number one in Australia. The success resulted in a recording contract with Island Records, with whom she released two extended plays, three mixtapes, and her debut studio album Was It Even Real? (2019).

## Early life

Olivia Gail O'Brien was born on November 26, 1999, in Thousand Oaks, California. She has been singing since she was seven years old, and taught herself to play guitar and piano. She attended Justin-Siena High School in Napa, California. She also skipped a grade (3rd), and attended Montessori and Catholic schools in her youth. O'Brien also was bullied as a teenager, some of it stemming from her social class and the fact she was creating music.

## Career
### 2013–2019: Breakthrough and Was It Even Real?

O'Brien initially gained the attention of Gnash after posting a cover of one of his songs on SoundCloud, after beginning to create music at the age of 13. Gnash reached out to O'Brien, expressing interest in her material, and asked for her to send him any original songs that she had. O'Brien then sent a voice note of her original song, "I Hate U, Love U", and he invited her to record the song with him in Los Angeles. "I Hate U, I Love U" (stylized in lowercase) was released in March 2016, and appears on Gnash's third EP titled Us. The single peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in Australia. Thereafter, O'Brien signed with Island Records and released her debut solo single, "Trust Issues", in August 2016, which premiered through Complex magazine. Her second single, "Root Beer Float" featuring Blackbear, premiered on September 15, 2016. O'Brien released a third single, "Find What You're Looking For", in October 2016. O'Brien released "Hate U, Love U" as a single in December, the original solo version of "I Hate U, I Love U". O'Brien also released an acoustic video for the song on December 20, 2016. O'Brien made her television debut in July 2016 with Gnash performing "I Hate U, I Love U" on Late Night with Seth Meyers. O'Brien and Gnash made their second television performance on September 19, 2016, performing "i hate u, i love u" on Today.
In February 2017, O'Brien released "Empty" as the lead single from her debut extended play. In March 2017, O'Brien was nominated for an iHeartRadio Music Award for Best Solo Breakout, but lost to Zayn Malik. She released the next single from the EP in July, "RIP", with accompanying music video. The third single, "No Love", followed in November along with her debut extended play, It's Not That Deep. O'Brien featured in the acoustic version of Jack & Jack's single "Beg", released in January 2018. In June 2018, a remix of "RIP" was released with the collaboration of G-Eazy and Drew Love. In August 2018, "UDK" was released as the first promotional single from O'Brien's debut studio album. O'Brien released the lead single, "I Don't Exist", in September, followed by "Care Less More" in November, both with accompanying music videos. The third single, "Love Myself", was released on February 1, 2019. In March, O'Brien announced that her debut studio album, Was It Even Real?, was scheduled for release on April 26, 2019. She then released "Just Friends" as the second promotional single, and "Just a Boy", as the final single before the release of the album. In May 2019, O'Brien collaborated with the Norwegian group Seeb on "Fade Out". The single was accompanied by a music video.

### 2019–2020: Micromixtapes

On November 15, 2019, she released a project called It Was a Sad Fucking Summer as the first release from a series of "micro-mixtapes" leading to her next album. She also announced a tour, It Was a Sad F**king Tour, beginning in February 2020. On February 6, 2020, O'Brien released her second micro-mixtape, The Results Of My Poor Judgement. In April 2020, O'Brien was set to perform at Coachella Festival, which was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A track from the tape called "Josslyn" gained traction on streaming services and radio airplay when users on TikTok began doing dance challenges to the song. A "quarantine" music video shot at O'Brien's house in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic was released on May 8. The single would be re-released on the Josslyn EP which included the original version of the song, a remix, a demo of the song and a on May 15. A remix with rapper 24kGoldn was released on May 22, whilst the original song was serviced to top 40 radio formats on June 2.
On September 18, 2020, O'Brien released a single titled "Now" along with a music video.

### 2021–2023: Episodes

O'Brien released the single, "Better Than Feeling Lonely" on January 1, 2021. On April 9, 2021, O'Brien released "Sociopath" as the lead single for her scrapped album following an online fan vote between it and "Bitch Back", which was later released, featuring FLETCHER on August 5, 2022. The first part of what would have been her second studio album was released on June 11, 2021, under the name Episodes: Season 1. The track "No More Friends" features from Oli Sykes. To support the project, O'Brien embarked on The Olivia O'Brien Show tour in the fall of 2021. However, Olivia decided to take a step back on the release of the second half of the album for now, saying she "[doesn't] want to worry about making a project right now", and that she's "just putting out songs at this point" on the Zach Sang Show. However, she has also said that "if at some point [her team and her] want to compile [the upcoming songs] together", they could make that compilation into Episodes: Season 2.

### 2023–present: Departure from Island

In March 2023, O'Brien announced via TikTok that she left Island Records due to a variety of differences. In April, she released "Born With a Broken Heart," her first single as an independent artist, followed by "I Should've Fucked Your Brother" in July. In 2024, she launched an independent record label, called Girlhood Records, where she will release her future music in, with distribution through Warner Music Group's ADA.

## Personal life

O'Brien came out as bisexual via Twitter on July 22, 2022.

## Discography
### Studio albums

| Title | Details |
| Was It Even Real? | Released: April 26, 2019 Label: Island Format: CD, LP, digital download, streaming |

### Extended plays

| Title | Details |
| It's Not That Deep | Released: November 17, 2017 Label: Island Format: Digital download, streaming |
| Episodes: Season 1 | Released: June 11, 2021 Label: Island Format: Digital download, streaming |
| Love & Limerence | Released: June 21, 2024 Label: Girlhood Format: Digital download, streaming |
| Everywhere I Go, There I Am | Released: November 15, 2024 Label: Girlhood Format: Digital download, streaming |

### Mixtapes

| Title | Details |
| It Was A Sad Fucking Summer | Released: November 15, 2019 Label: Island Format: CD, digital download, streaming |
| The Results Of My Poor Judgement | Released: February 7, 2020 Label: Island Format: Digital download, streaming |
| A Means to An End | Released: November 18, 2022 Label: Island Format: Digital download, streaming |

### Singles
#### As lead artist

List of singles as lead artist, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name :
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album |
| Title | Year | US | NZ Hot | Certifications | Album |
| "Hate U, Love U" | 2016 | 99 | — | RIAA: Gold BPI: Silver | Non-album single |
| "Empty" | 2017 | — | — | | It's Not That Deep |
| "RIP" (solo or featuring G-Eazy & Drew Love) | 2017 | — | — | | It's Not That Deep |
| "I Don't Exist" | 2018 | — | — | | Was It Even Real? |
| "Care Less More" | 2018 | — | — | | Was It Even Real? |
| "Love Myself" (solo or featuring Jesse) | 2019 | — | — | | Was It Even Real? |
| "Just a Boy" | 2019 | — | — | | Was It Even Real? |
| "Fade Out" (with Seeb and Space Primates) | 2019 | — | — | | Sad in Scandinavia |
| "Josslyn" (solo or with 24kGoldn) | 2020 | — | — | RIAA: Gold | The Results Of My Poor Judgement |
| "Now" | 2020 | — | 28 | | Non-album single |
| "Better Than Feeling Lonely" | 2021 | — | 17 | | Non-album single |
| "Sociopath" | 2021 | — | — | | Episodes: Season 1 |
| "No More Friends" (with Oliver Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon) | 2021 | — | — | | Episodes: Season 1 |
| "Bitches These Days" | 2022 | — | — | | Non-album single |
| "Caught Up" (with Gryffin) | 2022 | — | — | | Alive |
| "Bitch Back" (with Fletcher) | 2022 | — | — | | Non-album singles |
| "I Should've Fucked Your Brother" | 2023 | — | — | | Non-album singles |
| "Bandaid On a Bullet Hole" | 2023 | — | — | | Non-album singles |
| "Blip" | 2024 | — | — | | Love & Limerence |
| "Glimpse of Me" | 2024 | — | — | | Love & Limerence |
| "Out Of Your League (But I Want You So Bad)" | 2024 | — | — | | Love & Limerence |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. ||||||

#### As featured artist

List of singles as featured artist, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released and album name :
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album |
| Title | Year | US | AUS | AUT | BEL | CAN | DEN | ITA | NZ | SWE | UK | Certifications | Album |
| "I Hate U, I Love U" (Gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien) | 2016 | 10 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 22 | 29 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 7 | RIAA: 6× Platinum ARIA: 2× Platinum BEA: Platinum BPI: 2× Platinum FIMI: Gold IFPI DEN: Gold MC: Platinum RMNZ: Platinum | us |
| "Ringtone" (Diamond White featuring Olivia O'Brien) | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | | Non-album single |
| "Might Die Young" (Bobby Brackins featuring Olivia O'Brien and Tinashe) | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | | To Kill For |
| "Blueberry Eyes" (MAX featuring Olivia O'Brien, Suga and Lil Mosey) | 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | | Colour Vision (Deluxe) |
| "Claim" (Drumaq featuring Olivia O'Brien) | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | | Non-album single |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. ||||||||||||||

#### Promotional singles

| Title | Year | Certifications | Album |
| "Complicated" | 2015 | BPI: Silver | Non-album promotional single |
| "Trust Issues" | 2016 | | Non-album promotional single |
| "Root Beer Float" (featuring Blackbear) | 2016 | | Non-album promotional single |
| "Find What You're Looking For" | 2016 | | Non-album promotional single |
| "Tequilawine" | 2017 | | It's Not That Deep |
| "No Love" | 2017 | | It's Not That Deep |
| "UDK" | 2018 | | Was It Even Real? |
| "Just Friends" | 2019 | | Was It Even Real? |

### Songwriting credits

| Song | Year | Artist(s) | Album |
| "Fuckboy" | 2021 | Dixie D'Amelio | Non-album single |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2017 | iHeart Radio Music Awards | Best Solo Breakout | Herself | Nominated |
| 2017 | Radio Disney Music Awards | Best Breakup Song | "i hate u, i love u" | Nominated |