Olivia Rodrigo has returned with a new single unlike anything we had heard before, both in her catalog and, above all, in its thematic scope. It stands out, especially in its thematic dimension. ‘Serena Joy’ arrives a week before the inaugural edition of the Daisy Chain Fields festival, created by the artist and aimed at raising funds for organizations that defend the rights of women and girls.
‘Serena Joy’ is the most combative song in Olivia Rodrigo’s discography. It borrows the name from a character in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ a novel and TV series in which women’s reproductive rights are restricted to benefit a deeply religious government. In the work, Serena Joy’s objective is to return women to their traditional position of submission, which Rodrigo directly expresses in the song’s lyrics.
“Yes, it’s all for the cause, for the greater good,” she sings in the opening lines of the track. Dan Nigro pulls out a drum machine beat and a bass line with a New Order-esque edge in the production as Olivia sings from the perspective of the oppressors in the first verse (“Sing, sing / What you’re told to sing”) and from the vantage point of resistance in the second (“If you can’t punch, you can learn to spit”).
She herself revealed in an interview with ETalk that ‘Serena Joy’ did not make it onto the album because of its conceptual element, since the LP was focused on the chronicle of an entire relationship. And while there are production elements that we did hear in ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,’ her lyrics are something entirely new for Rodrigo. The proceeds from the track will also be donated to organizations such as Planned Parenthood or the Center For Reproductive Rights.
