Olivia Rodrigo is back with her second single “deja vu,” a follow-up to instant hit “drivers license" that finds her as spectator to an ex and their new love interest once more. But the music video for “deja vu" examines some familiar plot points from a new angle, focusing on the love interest instead.
The detailed setting: California coastline, Glee reruns, trading jackets, and laughing about the size differences. Lyrically, the song has a similar energy to Lorde's “Green Light” — a cynical, scoffing read on an ex who takes all the fun, unique parts of a relationship and transfers them over to someone new as if the old person never existed. For Olivia, this betrayal takes the form of Billy Joel's “Uptown Girl," which her ex now sings with a new girlfriend. “I know you get deja vu,” she hurls at the ex-love, a line delivered with all the angst of a certain pop icon's, “I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?”
But the music video plays with sapphic tropes and symbols (strawberry ice cream, anyone?): do you wish you were her, or do you want to date her? The gaze is clearly on the new girlfriend (played by Talia Ryder), and Olivia is obsessed. She watches her on numerous TV screens, copying her outfits and hairstyles. Director Allie Avital drew upon projects like Ingrid Goes West, Killing Eve, 3 Women, and Persona to craft the narrative, which sees a slowly-revealed “mutual infatuation between the two girls, ultimately culminating in a merge of identities.”
“I thought it’d be interesting to write a song, using deja vu, about how sometimes when somebody moves on in a relationship and they get with a new partner, you watch it and you’re like, ‘oh my gosh, that was all of the stuff that I did,'" Olivia told American Songwriter about the track. "I think that’s a really relatable, universal thing."
Olivia's debut album drops on May 21. Below, check out the music video for “deja vu.”
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