The "Drivers License" singer, who starred on the Disney+ showHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Seriesbefore her music industry breakout, toured her sophomore albumGutsfrom early 2024 into July 2025. Although the 23-year-old gave fans a deluxe edition of her sophomore album in March 2024 — featuring once vinyl-exclusive tracks "Obsessed," "Girl I've Always Been," "Scared of My Guitar" and "Stranger," as well as the new song "So American" — fans have been eagerly anticipating new music from the Grammy winner. However, it wasn't until March 2026 that the artist finally began hinting at what her third album will sound like — and what topics she will explore.
Olivia Rodrigo is leaning into love
In a new interview withBritish Voguereleased on Thursday, Rodrigo confirmed that songs on her upcoming album will be love songs — a stark difference fromSourandGuts, which spanned topics like jealousy and heartbreak and anger, but rarely swoony love. (The one track that can be considered a love song is "So American," a track off the 2024 bonus edition ofGutsthat some speculate is aboutBrit Louis Partridge.)
However, in typical Rodrigo fashion, there's a darker side to this love: "I realised all my favourite romantic love songs were beautiful because they had a tinge of fear or yearning in them," she said.
She's still exploring feelings of insecurity
One of the things that has made Rodrigo's work so relatable is her willingness to show her vulnerable side — just like she did on her debut single "Drivers License," in which she sang about another girl being everything she's "insecure about," and later on tracks likeSour's "Jealousy, Jealousy" andGuts' "Pretty Isn't Pretty," in which she reflected on not feeling good enough.
On her next album, Rodrigo said she's using love as a jumping-off point for talking about her own personal problems. When asked by British Vogue about whether her heightened fame did anything to squash her insecurities, Rodrigo said it did not. "I felt a similar way about falling in love, that the second I'm in a really great relationship, I'm gonna start feeling good about myself and this stuff is going to fall into place, but it just doesn't work like that," she explained. The last song on the album is about that realization, according to British Vogue.
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Expect variety from her new music
Speaking fromthe Vogue kitchen, where the Filipino–American singer made the traditional fried spring rolls lumpia, Rodrigo described the upcoming album as "varied."
"I really wanted to figure out a way to kind of write about joy in this album," she said. "I feel like my last two albums are very, rightfully so, kind of angsty and heartbroken, and just as a creative endeavor. And also 'cause I was experiencing a lot of joy in my life, I wanted to figure out how to, like, inject that into the songs that I was making."
Echoing her previous comments to British Vogue, Rodrigo said, "I think in music, my favorite love songs are love songs that are a little bit sad or have a little bit of, like, wistfulness or mourning or fear or something. And so I kind of set out making this album, like, trying to write a sad love song."
She seems to be embracing a new color scheme
Rodrigo famously used purple for both her albumSourandGuts— but there are clues she may be shifting into a new color scheme. In March,a mural in Los Angeles, photos of which wereshared by Rodrigo's official fan account, popped up, featuring the brand-new "OR" logo that also appears on Rodrigo's website.
While the mural was originally purple, it was eventually re-painted pink. As of Friday, March 20, the wall is a light shade of pink, and where "OR" was now reads the word "Love." It alsomatches Rodrigo's updated website, where fans can sign up for updates.