deja vu

“deja vu” is the second single from American singer Olivia Rodrigo and her upcoming debut studio album “Sour”, which is due to be released on the 21st May 2021. Written by Rodrigo and writer and producer Dan Nigro, the indie pop song acts as a second part to Rodrigo’s first release “drivers license”, however this song sees Rodrigo wish her ex-partners current girlfriend luck with the relationship, as she recalls how her ex is doing the same things with his current girlfriend.

Speaking to Rodrigo, Zane Lowe enquired about the inspiration behind the song, to which Rodrigo responded:

“I’m sort of obsessed with the concept of deja vu, like I really love that concept. I get deja vu all the time. So, I thought it would be a cool like play on words to kind of use deja vu as a metaphor for like how, it’s a very universal thing that happens. You break up with someone, and they get with somebody else, and you kind of see them living the life you lived with them. […] It’s this super universal thing that happens to everyone that we just don’t talk about a ton.
I had this like line in my phone written for like a while “when she’s with you, do you get deja vu?” I was in the studio with Dan, and we were trying to write like a sad song, but it just wasn’t coming. So he’s like “What else do you have?” and I was like “I have this like line written” and he really liked it. So we kind of wrote it together, and created this whole like world. I really love painting pictures with songs, so we’ve tried to be really vivid with the lyrics.”

The music video for “deja vu” was inspired by the British series “Killing Eve”, which Rodrigo revealed via an Instagram Live, stating: “I’m obsessed with Killing Eve, it is my favorite show ever. I’m like obsessed with Jodie Comer, she’s incredible and I love that show so much. So I wanted to do a Killing Eve-esque video, that’s like female stalkery.” Directed by Allie Avital and released on the 1st April 2021, the video was shot in Malibu and shows Rodrigo driving a car and eating ice-cream as shr drives to a house and watches a girl in a green dress. Rodrigo heads home, where there are TVs stacked up playing videos of the girl she saw; but when Rodrigo rewinds the video, it is her in the dress and not the other girl, so Rodrigo smashes all the TVs. As of the beginning of May 2021, the video has almost 50 million views and over 1.8 million likes.

The lyrics to “deja vu” can be accessed here.