Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Deja Vu’ got 4 Point Score

Background and promotion

Olivia Rodrigo signed to Geffen Records, a subsidiary of Interscope Records, intending to release her debut EP in 2021. She co-wrote the song “Drivers License” with its producer Daniel Nigro, and released it as her debut single in January 2021, to commercial success. Billboard magazine declared it as one of the “most dominant” hits in Hot 100 history.

Rodrigo began teasing a follow-up single by wiping her Instagram account and posting cryptic teasers of it on her social media accounts in late March 2021; on March 29, she announced that it would be titled “Deja Vu”, and set a release date of three days later, reassuring fans that the announcement was not an April Fools’ Day joke. Rodrigo unveiled the song’s artwork in the same post. Rodrigo posted three cryptic flickering clips preceding the announcement, featuring a melting ice cream cone, drifting clouds, and a car being driven along the ocean, which was interpreted as a reference to “Deja Vu”‘s lyrics by Nylon‘s Steffanee Wang. In an interview with MTV News, Rodrigo stated that the song was “definitely not like ‘Drivers License’ at all”, and was excited and nervous about her audience viewing a different aspect of her artistry on it.

Composition and lyrics

On “Deja Vu”, Rodrigo addresses a past partner who is currently pursuing a different relationship and recalls how he is repeating things he did with her, like driving up the California coast, eating strawberry ice cream, watching reruns of the show Glee and listening to Billy Joel‘s song “Uptown Girl“.

Music video

Before “Deja Vu” was released, Rodrigo went onto YouTube and MTV for premiering her new single, she said that they shot the music video of “Deja Vu” in Malibu. The music video was directed by Allie Avital. It featured cameo appearances by the American actress Talia Ryder.