Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo thanks Long Island's Dan Nigro, her producer and 'best friend' 

Behind Olivia Rodrigo’s three Grammy wins Sunday night stood a Long Island native, producer-songwriter Dan Nigro.

“A huge thanks to Dan who made all of my music with me,” Rodrigo said during her acceptance speech for the best new artist award. “Dan, you are the best friend and collaborator I could ever ask for so this is all because of you. Thank you."

Nigro, of Massapequa Park, produced and co-wrote much of Rodrigo’s chart-topping album “Sour,” which won best pop vocal album and included the smash hit “Drivers License,” which earned best pop solo performance. That single, which broke streaming records on Spotify and spent eight weeks at No. 1, turned the 19-year-old Rodrigo into a major star and established Nigro, 39, as a rising hitmaker. Major names such as Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Haley Williams and Annie Clark (known by her stage name St. Vincent) also have songwriting credits on the album.

Nigro, dressed in a dark suit with a patterned black shirt, sat at Rodrigo’s table during Sunday’s ceremony and posed for photographers with the singer backstage as she held her best new artist Grammy. (Like Swift before her, Rodrigo at one point held so many Grammys that she dropped and broke one.)

Long Island music fans may remember Nigro as the singer for As Tall as Lions, an indie band that rode the region’s emo wave during the 2000s. As hard-rocking local groups such as Taking Back Sunday and Brand New became major-label acts, Nigro’s group tended toward sweeping ballads and built a small but loyal following. When As Tall as Lions split in 2010, Nigro relocated to Los Angeles and became a freelance songwriter and producer.

Collaborations with Sky Ferreira, Carly Rae Jepsen and others followed, but it was Rodrigo — a “High School Musical” alumna searching for a record deal — who seemed to connect with Nigro’s romantic sensibility. The two began working together during the early onset of the pandemic in 2020, a collaboration that would produce the album’s five singles, including “Deja Vu,” “Traitor,” “Brutal” and “Good 4 U.” The latter earned a nomination for best music video.

“I feel like we make a good pair,” Nigro told Newsday shortly after “Drivers License” became a hit. “She comes in with ideas and then I kind of run them through my filter of how I can hear a song. We'll mess around with different tempos and keys and chord progressions. For some reason it works.”

On Monday, Nigro did not immediately respond to Newsday's request for comment.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman