On Friday, 500 lucky Olivia Rodrigo fans got to hear her new song, “Serena Joy.” The track was initially released as a limited-edition CD single, available only at Analog Music Shop in Tustin, California. Now, Rodrigo has put the song out on DSPs, meaning those of us without close ties to the greater Tustin area can hear it, too. Do that below.
“Serena Joy” takes its title from a character in The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel about a future United States where women’s reproductive rights have been curtailed under a religious extremist government. Joy (played by Yvonne Strahovski in the Hulu adaptation starring Elizabeth Moss) is the wife of a high-ranking commander in the totalitarian patriarchy of Gilead. Over the course of the series, she experiences a crisis of faith and eventually aids Moss’ June in assassinating the members of Gilead’s leadership.
“Yeah it’s all for the cause, for the good of us all,” Rodrigo sings in the opening lines of “Serena Joy,” “and if you close your eyes, then it can’t be your fault.” While the song’s Peter Hook-esque bass line carries through the sonic palette of her new album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, Rodrigo’s subject matter has shifted from that record’s laser-focused autopsy of a relationship to broader concerns about societal ignorance and complicity.
The release of “Serena Joy” on streaming lands just a week before the inaugural edition of Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival, the net proceeds of which will be donated to charities including Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Set for August 29, the Irvine festival’s lineup gathers Bikini Kill, Stevie Nicks, Chappell Roan, Santigold, and more.
Rodrigo shared You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love in June. She’ll bring her sweeping tale of romantic devotion-turned-devastation around the world later this year on the Unraveled Tour, where she’ll be joined by openers Grace Ives, Wolf Alice, Devon Again, the Last Dinner Party, and Die Spitz.
Read Shaad D’Souza’s cover story Olivia Rodrigo: Blood on the Tracks.