Olivia Rodrigo releases new song 'Serena Joy'

Olivia Rodrigo has released a new song, "Serena Joy," a one-off single not tied to an announced album.

The track first surfaced Friday in a strictly physical form: 500 fans got to hear it on a limited-edition CD single sold at Analog Music Shop in Tustin, California. It's since arrived on streaming platforms for everyone else.

"Serena Joy" takes its title from a character in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, the dystopian novel about a future United States where women's reproductive rights have been stripped away under a religious authoritarian government. In the story, Serena Joy is the wife of a high-ranking commander who eventually turns against the regime she helped build.

"Yeah it's all for the cause, for the good of us all," Rodrigo sings on the track, "and if you close your eyes, then it can't be your fault." The song's bass line echoes the sound of her most recent album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, but its focus shifts from romantic fallout to broader concerns about complicity and denial.

The streaming release lands a week before the first edition of Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields festival, set for August 29 in Irvine, California, with proceeds going to Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The bill includes Bikini Kill, Stevie Nicks, Chappell Roan and Santigold. Rodrigo will also take her music around the world later this year on the Unraveled Tour, with support from Grace Ives, Wolf Alice, Devon Again, the Last Dinner Party and Die Spitz.