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Olivia Rodrigo has watched every episode of "Sex and the City" about three times. That devotion shows up on her next album.
Appearing on "The Tonight Show" Thursday, the 23-year-old pop star revealed that multiple songs on her forthcoming record, "You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love," were inspired by the complicated relationship between lawyer Miranda Hobbes and former bartender Steve Brady — two of the HBO drama's central characters. "It's my favorite show," she told host Jimmy Fallon. The show ended in February 2004, one month after Rodrigo was born.
The album, due June 12 via Geffen Records, marks a deliberate shift in tone. Rodrigo's previous two releases, "Sour" (2021) and "Guts" (2023), both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and were defined by heartbreak and angst. This time, she said, she wanted to explore romantic love from a more positive angle. "I knew that I wanted this record to be about romantic love in more of a positive sense," she said, though she was quick to add that the songs would still carry "a little bit of sadness and longing. And melancholy, because all my favorite love songs have that." She cited The Cure's "Love Song" and Lana Del Rey's "Video Games" as two of those favorites.
The album's lead single, "Drop Dead," opened at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Rodrigo her fourth song to debut at the top spot. She described it as a song about a great first date. "It's the first step in the journey of 'You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl,'" she explained. "The journey definitely ebbs and flows. It goes in lots of different places from here, but this is the first chapter."
Rodrigo will perform "Drop Dead" and a brand-new track this weekend when she appears on "Saturday Night Live" as both host and musical guest — a rare double role she called a lifelong dream. She said she does have a lucky charm to get through it: a gift left in her dressing room by Jack White.
She also made one thing clear about her new album's unusually long title. After "Sour" and "Guts," there was speculation she might stick with a four-letter word. She won't. "I always knew it wasn't going to be four letters," she said. "I wanted to break out."
The album will be supported by the Unraveled Tour, 65 arena dates spanning North America, Europe and the U.K. The run kicks off September 25 at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Connecticut, and continues through fall and winter. "I've been working so hard on it," she said. "I'm so stoked to play these songs live."
