Olivia Rodrigo is all over the music sense this year with her two new hit songs Driver’s Licence and now her newest song “Deja Vu”. However, some of the hype is coming from the drama within the lyrics of the two songs. There has been plenty of time to see the meanings of the song driver’s licence so let’s break down the meaning behind Olivia’s new song “Deja Vu”.
We start with the line “car rides to Malibu,” which is referencing her newly received drivers licence that we all hurd about in her first release along with a sad heartfelt song about how she handled her break up. In The next couple lines she is referencing certain aspects of her previous relationship with Joshua Bassett the actor/singer. She started bringing up how they would get ice cream and watch glee reruns together when they were together. She then goes on to bring up the new relationship Joshua has with the actress/singer Sabrina Carpenter and points out the similarities in both of their relationships with Josh.
Now I want to skip right to the second verse of the song. In order to make sure the audience does not get it wrong she almost fully clarifies who the song is about by saying the lines “Do you call her? Almost saying my name ‘Cause let’s be honest We kinda do sound the same, Another actress”. This directly calls out the relationship and seems to be throwing some shade at the fact that her and Saberina have so many things in common and goes on to point out how she hopes he didn’t just have a type.
In the Third Verse Olivia goes on to talk about the Song Uptown Girl. It reads “ 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”. A couple weeks ago Sabrina posted a video of her listening to uptown girl which then Olivia wanted to point out to show that he is just reusing all of the same lines and cute ideas on Sabrina that Josh used in their relationship.
Each time she sings the chorus the first four lines are the same but she changes the next two to place another piece of information that she wanted to expose like “I made the jokes you tell to her when she’s with you“ and “Played you the song she’s singing now”. This points out her previous mentions of joking and Billy Joel. She starts each corus with the lines “So when you’re gonna tell her that we did that too she thinks it’s special but it’s all reused”. This definitely is her attempt at calling out Josh for not telling Sabrina about how a lot of the dates they do are being stolen from his ex relationship. The part that definitely gets the fans going is from the previous pictures that have been posted of Josh and Sabrina showing them in those exact situations. The Corus then of course ends with “Do you get deja vu when she’s with you” bringing the whole song together.
She then finishes off the song with an angry verse about how Josh isn’t even taking the time to acknowledge all of the dates and experiences they spent together. Along with still seeming to show that Olivia still kinda misses the past times with him she says “ I was the one who taught you Billy Joel, A different girl now but there’s nothing new”. The Deja Vu must really be strong for Josh, especially with two songs about his past relationship hitting the top ten charts.
Oliva has an entire album and an Ep coming out soon, and I am sure Josh is already having to do some damage control in his relationship given this new song. However in the end all of this is still speculation within the media and the only one who truly knows what the lyrics are about is Olivia. All we know now is Olivia is definitely going to be in the spotlight for many years to come. Now only time will tell how new information on the drama will surface in the months to come. Time to sit back and hold on for the ride, but only if Olivia is driving.