Chappell Roan's first-ever collaboration with Olivia Rodrigo puts the two pop stars on a Family Feud spoof hosted by David Byrne.
Pop stars Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan have released a remix of Expectations, the song from Rodrigo's third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. It is the first-ever collaboration between the two, and it comes with a music video in which Talking Heads' David Byrne hosts a game show.
The remix replaces Rodrigo's original second verse with one from Roan. Roan's verse describes a date that ends with the other woman ghosting her, and it includes the line "Classic L.A. behavior."
In an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, held hours before the remix hit streaming services, Rodrigo explained where the song came from:
"I wanted to write a mantra song."
Kendrick Lamar's HUMBLE. was one of the forces fueling the song. Rodrigo pointed to his HUMBLE. and its line "Sit down, be humble." She said it "gets in your brain." HUMBLE. was the lead single from DAMN. in March 2017 and gave Lamar his first solo No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rodrigo also credited Roan, saying she was "really inspired by Chappell and the attitude and swagger that she had." Roan told Apple Music that the song was "my first feature" for her, and that it "represents a generation of songwriters that are just really thinking about their lyrics."
The video is built like a game show. Byrne hosts, and Rodrigo appears as herself three times, in different costumes, venting about her romantic letdowns. Roan joins halfway through, when the show switches to a Family Feud format, which the pair call Sister Squabble. When she answers the question about places you should take her, she tells her own story of disappointment and clears the board. Producer Dan Nigro also appears.
Shaad D'Souza, reviewing for Pitchfork, says the song did not need a remix but he is glad it exists, and he hears Roan's voice pulling the track toward Blondie. "Nobody does “withering” better," he writes.
Roan has sung on Rodrigo's records before, though uncredited: backing vocals on "Lacy" and "Obsessed" from GUTS, and on "Can't Catch Me Now" from The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Her vocals on "Bad Idea Right?" did not make the final cut. Rodrigo had also invited her to open the GUTS World Tour in 2024.
The original landed on Rodrigo's Billboard 200-topping album in June and reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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