“I wanted to write a mantra song.” — Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo built “Expectations” around a single repeated idea, and she traces that choice straight to Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble.” She explained the thinking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music on Thursday, October 15, 2026.

The 23-year-old said she set out to write something different from her usual confessional style. “I feel like lots of my songs are like, ‘This is how I feel.’ Then I wanted to be like, ‘I want to sing this song every night.’ It’s like Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Sit down, be humble.’ It gets in your brain. It’s a mantra,” she said.

The track appears on her album “You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love.” Rodrigo also credited Chappell Roan for the song’s tone, saying she was “really inspired by Chappell and the attitude and swagger that she had.”

The two have now reworked the song together, releasing an “Expectations” remix with a video styled after a 1980s game show called The Big Expectations Show. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne plays the host, and Rodrigo’s longtime producer Dan Nigro makes a cameo.

“I love this song and this vid so much,” Rodrigo wrote on Instagram. “Chappell is the most incredible person and the most inspiring artist and I am so lucky to be able to learn from her and call her a friend.”