"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" (stylized in
all lowercase) is a song by American singer-songwriter
Olivia Rodrigo for her second studio album, Guts (2023). Rodrigo wrote it with
Dan Nigro, who produced it.
Background
After the commercial success of her debut studio album, Sour (2021),[3]Olivia Rodrigo continued collaborating with
Dan Nigro, who had produced all of the tracks on it.[4] The follow-up album, Guts (2023), was conceived when she was aged 19, a year that she described as "lots of confusion, mistakes, awkwardness & good old fashioned teen angst".[5] The album and its title were announced on June 26, 2023, and its lead single, "
Vampire", was released four days later.[6][7] The song reached number one in various countries,[8][9] including the United States, where it became her third number one single on the
Billboard Hot 100.[10] "
Bad Idea Right?" was chosen as the follow-up single.[11]
"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" is three minutes and 23 seconds long.[14] Nigro produced the song, and he engineered it with Sam Stewart, Sterling Laws, Dave Schiffman, and Jasmine Chen. He plays guitar,
percussion, and drum programming; Erick Serna and Stewart play electric guitar; Ryan Linvill plays bass; and Laws plays drums.
Spike Stent mixed the song, and
Randy Merrillmastered it.[12]
Commercial performance
"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" debuted at number 24 on the US
Billboard Hot 100.[15] The song peaked at number 25 on the
Canadian Hot 100.[16] In the United Kingdom, it charted at number 20 on the
Official Audio Streaming Chart however was ineligible to chart on the main
UK Singles Chart due to a rule which permits a maximum of 3 songs per artist on the chart.[17][18][19] In Australia, "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" reached number 22.[20] The song peaked at number 18 in New Zealand.[21] It charted at number 21 on the
Billboard Global 200.[22] Elsewhere, "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" reached national record charts, at number 17 in Ireland,[23] number 51 in Portugal,[24] and number 53 in Greece.[25]
Live performance
The song was first performed in an acoustic version at an exclusive show at the
Ace Theater as part of Amex Member Week together with its co-writer and producer Dan Nigro on October 9, 2023.[26] On October 24, she performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.[27]
Accolades
Awards and nominations for "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl"