Olivia Rodrigo has never shied away from letting people know where she stands on politics. In her first ever festival slot, she called out the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade before dedicating a duet of Lily Allen’s “F**k You” to the court. She launched her own charity initiative, The Fund 4 Good, that connected young women with reproductive healthcare resources across the country. She was awarded the Catalyst of Change award at the 2025 Planned Parenthood gala for the initiative.
Rodrigo’s music is able to resonate so deeply with people spanning different generations because she reports back on every experience she’s had with the ferocity that she experienced whilst living it. Whether the topic is heartbreak, personal insecurities, or self-discovery, you can always count on Rodrigo to make even the most hyper-specific scenarios feel universal. A devout reporter on what it means to be a young woman in 2026, it was only a matter of time before Rodrigo dove head first into how increasingly aggressive politics shape young women’s lives.
Her new song “serena joy,” named after the character from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, is not only Rodrigo’s most overtly political song, but also one of the best in her discography to date. The character Serena Joy is one of the central antagonists in Atwood’s tale: the wife of a wealthy politician who remains complicit in the dictatorship that unfolds around her. In the track, Rodrigo calls out the hypocrisy of conservative women who turn a blind eye to the atrocities around them. It’s a reminder that no one, not even the wealthiest of women, is exempt from patriarchal control.
The track also marks another chapter in Rodrigo’s long-standing partnership with producer Dan Nigro. Rodrigo and Nigro are in a league of their own when it comes to their joint creative outputs, with every project that they work on together feeling fresh and exciting. “serena joy” is no exception to this. With its late 80s new-wave influences, it fits perfectly into the sonic world of you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.
The instrumentation is mechanical and almost sterile at times, and when coupled with Rodrigo’s slightly distant and hazy vocals, it creates a dynamic push and pull throughout the track. As the song progresses, the main vocal is layered with harmonies that feel automated, repeating that “everything is just fine,” even when everything is decidedly not fine.
“serena joy” works because Rodrigo is able to successfully decenter herself from the narrative. She isn’t a feminist just when it affects her; she knows that being “all for the cause and the good of us all” extends far beyond herself. It affects every young girl who listens to her music and attends one of her shows. It’s why she launched her own festival, Daisy Chain Fields: to create a safe, community-oriented space for young women to thrive in when the world is stacked against them.
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