deja vu

Harmonically, 'Deja Vu' is deliberately simple — a diatonic major-key song built on tonic-subdominant drift in the verses and a classic vi-IV-I-V chorus loop. Its distinctiveness comes from production and arrangement rather than chord vocabulary: the maj7 shimmer, the woozy psychedelic textures, and the explosive bridge make familiar harmony feel disorienting, which is exactly the point of a song about reliving old memories.

Rodrigo and Dan Nigro wrote 'Deja Vu' over the course of one day in August 2020, roughly a month after writing 'Drivers License'. The song grew out of a lyric idea Rodrigo had saved in her phone's notes app: 'When she was with you do you get deja vu?'. Recording stretched over several months as Rodrigo re-recorded vocals and brainstormed new melodies, and the pair considered EDM-style vocal chops for the post-chorus before settling on a synthesizer riff because Rodrigo felt the chops were 'too poppy'.

Released on April 1, 2021 as the second single from her debut album Sour, 'Deja Vu' proved 'Drivers License' was no fluke, debuting at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and making Rodrigo the first artist ever to open their first two singles inside the chart's top 10. Written with producer Dan Nigro, the song blends dreamy psychedelic pop textures with rock energy, and its bridge earned Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent writing credits for interpolating 'Cruel Summer'.