Olivia Rodrigo 'unravels' the inspiration behind her third album

Olivia Rodrigo, who is set bring 'The Unraveled Tour' to the UK next year, joined Fleur East, Will and James on Hits Radio to chat about her new music. The singer has now released her third studio album called 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love', and as she explained to us, it turned out to be a "concepty album".

Olivia's album had been highly-anticipated by fans, who were monitoring the singer's Instagram account and live gigs for clues to the album's name and theme. Now that the album has been released, Olivia has opened up about creating the album, telling Fleur, Will and James: "I had an awesome time making this album. I felt like very inspired and I had just a wonderful time creating it with people that I love a lot.

"And I knew that I set out making this record... I knew that I wanted it to be about romantic love in more of a positive sense, because I think my last two albums are notoriously very heartbroken and angsty and all that good stuff."

Watch the full interview below

Olivia then went on to explain: "And then over the course of making the album, I think I injected a lot of it with some sadness and some melancholy and like fear.

"And I think I realised that that's something that all my favourite love songs had, was like a little bit of like sadness that really grounded in something real.

"So, yeah, and that's the title too, ‘you seem pretty sad for girl so in love’. It's both sides of the coin."

She continued: "I think it's just maybe a little more honest, you know what I mean? It's like, I think being in a relationship and being like, 'Everything's so awesome, this guy's so great'. It's like, 'Awesome and fun', but I think real life is always a little more complicated and nuanced."

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The album cover

The singer announced the name and release date of the album back in April 2026, and revealed more about her choice of the album artwork in the chat. "I really love the album cover and it has a lot of like meaning underneath the initial photo, but I just... it felt so joyful," she explained.

"I wanted the album to be about joy and I think there's nothing more joyful than swinging upside down on a swing. It's just feeling like so in love and like infatuated and that's sort of what it represented to me.

"And then the backside of the album is me laying in the grass and I sort of wanted to capture like being on the swing and then like maybe you fell off and like sitting in the grass. It's kind of the dichotomy of it all.

Two sides of an album

Following the release of the tracklist in May, it was revealed that there are two sides to the album, and they aren't just physical. "It sort of turned out to be like sort of like a concepty album, which I didn't initially think it was going to be," Liv told us.

"It really tells a story. And so the first side of the album, Side A is a little happier and then the B Side, it sort of starts to unravel, as I say."

She added: "(There's) really something for everyone on the album. I think anyone in any stage of a relationship can find a song that hopefully speaks to their situation."

Her favourite lyrics from the album

With an album full of 13 songs, Will asked Olivia what her favourite lyric off the album is, to which she replied: "There's a song called ‘honey bee’ that I really like, that's like this kind of pure classic love song and there's a lyric that's... ‘I hope I never see what your face looks like going. A face I swear I could spend my whole life knowing,’ that I think it's really beautiful and sad and sweet."

Olivia's previous albums are 'time capsules'

'you seem pretty sad for a girl in love' is Olivia's third album. At just 23, she's some how already released GRAMMY winning album 'sour', and GRAMMY nominated album 'guts'. However, as the singer explained she sees the previous albums as "time capsules" of when she was younger.

Fleur asked: "How different are you now, like this version now, compared to that version when you wrote 'sour'?"

Admitting it was a good question, Olivia responded: "That's a great question. I mean, wildly different. I think that I am so much more confident and know what I'm doing more. It's really tough to be 17. I mean, you guys remember! You're just really anxious."

She continued: "I probably would block it out if there wasn't an album about it. I probably wouldn't remember any of it! But I don't know, I think I still am the same girl underneath it all and I like... it's really fun.

"It's really fun to have a time capsule of exactly how you were feeling at any given age. Like I have one when I was 17 and then 'guts' is my time capsule when I was 19 and this will be my time capsule when I was 22. So it's really fun to be able to like look back on it.

"It's kind of like leafing through an old diary or something," she ended.

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