Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Expectations’ Lyrics Detail Her New Dating Standards After Her Louis Partridge Breakup

Olivia Rodrigo’s third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love doesn’t end with “Less,” a song that seems to detail the moment she and Louis Partridge broke up. The track immediately after, “Expectations,” shows Rodrigo back out in Los Angeles, trying to date again—with new standards.

She sings about being out on New Year’s Eve (“So I hit the new year / Like a single girl at a Vegas bar”); the timing lines up with reports that broke in late December, saying she and Partridge had split a few weeks before. Her friend Harper Grohl also posted a photo of them celebrating the new year together on Jan. 1, 2026.

In the first verse, the singer recounts her short-lived experience with a privileged guy (“He wasn’t smart or funny / I convinced myself he was / He had a great apartment / And a car his parents bought / I thought that he was perfect / And now his number’s blocked”) before sharing her new list of non-negotiables and overall stance on dating (“I won’t settle for a guy with a fake job / They seem so desperate for loving / But baby I’m not”).

She may also hint at some of the issues she had with Partridge in the lines “I’m not kissing any boy that is passive / Their indecision is painfully unattractive / Past mistakes are just new information,” which echoes some of the critiques she made about her ex in the album’s final track, “Cigarette Smoke” (“I regret you / And how long I stayed / I resent you / For not being brave, oh-oh”).

Rodrigo hasn’t dated anyone publicly since Partridge. She did detail her brief experience on the dating app Raya to British Vogue and the type of guy she doesn’t take seriously, which may have inspired her “I won’t settle for a guy with a fake job” line.

After releasing Sour, she was on the app for a month and went on one date. “I was like, ‘Wow, never again. It was just so bad,’” she said. “I didn’t even see anyone cool! I thought I would see, like, ooh, some really hot actor guy. I don’t even know any of these people…It’s [always] some weird ‘creative director.’ Like, you just don’t have a job.”

It’s unclear how much that experience inspired the track, or whether it’s about a more current, private story Rodrigo hasn’t shared.

She did admit on The New York Times’ Popcast that the songs are for the most part “chronological and in the order in which it happened in my life and it’s the first time that’s happened. And I think that was really interesting for me creatively to like structure it that way.”

She added, “I write songs to process my feelings, so every day when I come and I sit at the piano or I get the guitar or I go to the studio, it’s like, ‘What is burning in me to say right now?’ I think it all comes from the heart and isn’t super calculated [in the way a concept album is].”

Dating-wise, the star told Cosmopolitan in April that she is focused on friendship right now, calling it “the most important phase [of love].”

“Best friend, community love. Dating is just the cherry on top,” she shared.

During her BBC interview, released earlier this week, she also confirmed she hadn’t found her person yet while discussing her dream of being proposed to in New York City’s Central Park. “I’d love it if someone paid for a placard on one of the benches that said, ‘Will you marry me?’” she said with a laugh. “Then you’d sit down and you’re like, ‘Oh my God!’ So spread the word... Hopefully my future husband will see this.”

“Expectations” is Rodrigo getting back out there and setting her bar higher as she continues her search for that man. Listen to the song and read its lyrics below.

I met him at a partyI think he was on drugsHe wasn’t smart or funnyI convinced myself he wasHe had a great apartmentAnd a car his parents boughtI thought that he was perfectAnd now his number’s blockedTook a couple monthsBut now I am secureI am so evolvedNow I ask for more and moreAnd more and more and moreI won’t settle for a guy with a fake jobThey seem so desperate for lovingBut baby I’m notGave my heart with zero stipulationsNow I take careful considerationI’m not kissing any boy that is passiveTheir indecision is painfully unattractivePast mistakes are just new informationThese days I’ve got expectationsSo I hit the new yearLike a single girl at a Vegas barRockin’ my mini dressWith a vodka cran and an open heartYeah I got hopeYeah I got driveI will not lose my faithDon’t think my future husband’s at this bar in SilverlakeBut in a couple monthsA man will be procuredHe will be evolvedAnd I will be adoredAdored, adored, adored, adoredI won’t settle for a guy with a fake jobThey seem so desperate for lovingBut baby I’m notGave my heart with zero stipulationsNow I take careful considerationI’m not kissing any boy that is passiveTheir indecision is painfully unattractivePast mistakes are just new informationThese days I’ve got expectationsI’ve got big expectationsI’ve got real big expectations I’ve got big expectationsI’ve got real big expectations She’s got big expectationsShe’s got real big expectationsShe’s got big expectationsShe’s got real big expectationsI won’t settle for a guy with a fake jobThey seem so desperate for lovingBut baby I’m notGave my heart with zero stipulationsNow I take careful considerationI’m not kissing any boy that is passiveTheir indecision is painfully unattractivePast mistakes are just new information

These days I’ve got expectations