Olivia Rodrigo – “deja vu”

Olivia Rodrigo – “deja vu”

In January, the 17-year-old singer and actor Olivia Rodrigo released the single “Drivers License,” which immediately became bafflingly, overwhelmingly huge. “Drivers License” debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and then stayed there for the next eight weeks. (Drake finally dethroned the song a couple of weeks ago.) Rodrigo already had a following as the star of Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, but “Drivers License was technically her debut single. By any measure, it’s one of the biggest debut singles of all time. Today, Rodrigo has announced that her as-yet-untitled debut album will be out next month, and she’s also released single number two.

Rodrigo’s new song is called “deja vu,” and she co-wrote it with her “Drivers License” collaborator Dan Nigro. Nigro, frontman of the Long Island emo band As Tall As Lions, has helped craft bangers for people like Sky Ferreira, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Caroline Polachek in the recent past, but he wasn’t an A-list pop person until he and Rodrigo linked up. Nigro produced “deja vu,” and Rodrigo has said that the two of them wrote it last fall, before “Drivers License” took over everything.

It can’t be easy to follow up a phenomenon-level smash, but I’m happy to report that “deja vu” sounds nothing like “Drivers License.” Instead, it’s a giddy, stomping pop banger with a euphoric-singalong chorus. The subject matter is pretty similar, though. Rodrigo spends the whole song calling out an ex, snarling about this person doing stuff with a new girl that they used to do with Rodrigo: “And I bet that she knows Billy Joel ’cause you played her ‘Uptown Girl’/ You’re singing it together/ Now I bet you even tell her how you love her/ In between the chorus and the verse.” Check out the bright, sunny, colorful video below.

Rodrigo’s album is out 5/21 on Interscope/Geffen.

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