Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan are playing to win on their new collaboration, a remix of Rodrigo’s “expectations” accompanied by a retro game-show music video featuring Talking Heads frontman David Byrne as host and producer Daniel Nigro in a cameo.
Directed by Bardia Zeinali, the clip pits Rodrigo and Roan against each other in The Big Expectations Show, a gaudy, nostalgia-soaked competition inspired by classic TV game shows of the ’80s and ’90s. As SPIN previously reported, anticipation had been building around the pairing of two of pop’s most distinctive contemporary voices. Their new version of “expectations,” the original of which is found on Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, brings that connection into sharper focus, with Roan adding a verse that embraces the song’s complicated romantic premise from a queer perspective.
In an interview with Apple Music, Roan called the collaboration a natural fit. “I feel like it represents a generation of songwriters that are just really thinking about their lyrics,” she said. “I felt like with this song, I was like, ‘Wow, it’s so cool that she is putting a pretty difficult concept within the pop song,’ which is my favorite pop songs ever.”
Rodrigo recalled how their studio conversations helped shape Roan’s contribution. “I have a vivid memory of being in the studio with you, Chappell, and we were trying to write the second verse and I was telling you all of the crazy stuff that boys have done to me and you were like, ‘Oh my God, you need to start dating girls. This is crazy.’ I know. It’s wild. It’s wild out here.”
Roan, meanwhile, said she appreciated the opportunity to bring an explicitly queer perspective to the track. “I don’t know if everyone would be down to have a fully queer verse on their song,” she admitted. “I think that that says a lot about your support for queerness, but also besides girl pop star vibes. It feels very feminist to me, but that is so you.”
The video’s game-show conceit gets an assist from Byrne, whose appearance was Rodrigo’s idea. “I asked him to do a cameo and I was a little bit sheepish obviously because I always feel shy asking people for favors, but he was so down,” she said. Byrne arrived with a fully developed character, Johnny Johnson, and spent the day improvising. “There’s so many outtakes we have of him just improvising and riffing and he was so into it,” Rodrigo added. “And I was like, ‘Gosh, David, maybe he should be an actor too one of these days. He’s very multi-talented.’”
The collaboration also reflects the friendship the two artists have developed as they navigate pop stardom. Roan described having Rodrigo as a friend as “so grounding,” adding that working together feels “full circle and wholesome and real.” Rodrigo returned the sentiment, calling Roan a “resource and a support system and confidant” in an industry that can be difficult to navigate while growing up in public. “So yeah, now we have a song together that’s like the cherry on top,” she said.
For Roan, the project also offered a welcome return to pop-star theatrics after a relatively quiet stretch. “I was like, ‘Oh, being a pop star is fun actually,’” she said, noting that she hadn’t released a song since “The Subway” last year. “We just get to bounce around on stage in hot little outfits and sing about love. It is our vibe and it makes me excited to get back into it.”