On Aug. 24, Olivia Rodrigo released a surprise single that immediately sent fans into a tizzy, excited to have more new music to enjoy after her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love, dropped in June. Instantly, fans were drawn to the name of the track, “Serena Joy,” which shares the name of one of the most conflicted and controversial characters in The Handmaid’s Tale — and upon listening to the song’s lyrics, it’s clear the name of the song was extremely intentional.
Rodrigo has been keeping fans on their toes with “Serena Joy.” The singer first surprise-released the track as a limited-edition CD single on Aug. 21 at Analog Records in Tustin, California, with only 500 copies available. Now, the song is officially available online, streaming just days before Rodrigo’s inaugural Daisy Chain Fields music festival, an all-women festival happening on Aug. 29, with net proceeds going toward organizations including Planned Parenthood and the Center of Reproductive Rights. And yes — this ties back to the song’s name and the meaning of its lyrics.
In case you missed English class (or the many years that the onscreen adaptation dominated Hulu) the song takes the name from Serena Joy Waterford, a character from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Serena Joy is the wife of Commander Fred Waterford and helps uphold Gilead’s oppressive society. What makes her character so complicated is that she benefits from the system she helps create, even though that same system limits her own freedom, and she eventually comes to regret her part in making it all happen. In her new song, Rodrigo seems to use Serena Joy as a symbol of contradiction, supporting something because you believe it protects you without thinking about who else could be hurt by it.
“Serena Joy” stands out because it feels so different from all the songs on the rest of the album, which is probably why it was cut from the album’s initial release. At its core, “Serena Joy” feels like a song about complicity; Rodrigo is taking a name from a fictional, dystopian world and using it to explore much bigger ideas about privilege, complacency, and what happens when people ignore injustice because they don’t believe it affects them.Â
You can convince yourself that something doesn’t affect you. You can close your eyes. You can tell yourself that everything is fine — but that doesn’t mean it is.
“If They Do it To Them, They’ll Do It To You”
One of the most important ideas in the song comes through its repeated warning: “if they do it to them/ they’ll do it to you.”
This lyric really captures the entire message of “serena joy.” It’s easy to ignore something when it doesn’t directly affect you. If someone else is being treated unfairly, it can feel easier to stay out of it. But Rodrigo challenges that mindset by reminding listeners that injustice doesn’t necessarily stop with the people who are initially targeted. That idea connects directly back to Serena Joy. She may have believed she had a protected place within Gilead, but eventually, the system she supported turns against her, too.Â
“Everything is Just Fine”
The song gets even more unsettling when Rodrigo repeats phrases like “Don’t think about it” and “Everything is just fine.” The lyrics almost sound like propaganda. Instead of encouraging people to question what is happening around them, the narrator tells them not to think too deeply. Just accept it. Keep smiling. Move on.Â
The lyric “Have a Coke and a smile” adds to that feeling. It creates this image of people being encouraged to stay comfortable and distracted while serious problems are happening around them. The contrast is what makes the song so effective. The lyrics almost sound carefree, but the message underneath them is anything but.
Because eventually, as Rodrigo reminds listeners once more at the end of the song, “If they do it to them/ They’ll do it to you.”