Olivia Rodrigo Reveals "Purple" Was "Initially A Love Song" Before Lyric Changes
"There's a lot to unpack in this song."
Even before Olivia Rodrigo released you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, fans knew that its seventh track would hit hard. That was not only because it bears the name of her signature color — “purple” was also situated in the exact middle of the album, which is notably split between happy love songs and heartbreaking lamentations. As its transitional position suggested, “purple” is a mixture of record’s bright-red heart eyes and its deep-blue melancholy. But at first, it was written to be much pinker than it ended up.
Rodrigo’s bifurcated album and the recency of her rumored breakup with Louis Partridge have led to a growing theory that you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love was drastically altered from a more optimistic project to develop a more despondent tone in its development. “Purple” is the clear centerpiece of this vibe shift, and Rodrigo has confirmed that the song was changed from a happy ditty about love to something much darker.
"Initially, it was a love song, and it was very sweet and saccharine," Rodrigo told the BBC. "And a few months after we wrote it, we revisited it and put new chords underneath it and tweaked some of the lyrics."
It’s pretty clear to see how “purple” was meant to be more light and uplifting at first. For most of the track, Rodrigo romanticizes melding her blue outlook with her partner’s red personality to form a beautiful purple world. But in a twisted final verse, “it all turns black.” As Rodrigo admits she “just feels sad” in the final line, the album switches over into its melancholic second half.
During a SiriusXM Hits 1 track-by-track breakdown, Rodrigo said “purple” was initially inspired by a love letter, but it devolved upon revisiting it later. “There’s a lot to unpack in this song,” she hinted.
Like “purple,” Rodrigo’s ballad “what’s wrong with me” was also originally conceived as a love song, she revealed. The BBC interview stated that Rodrigo changed the lyrics about intensely missing a lover to a reflection on a fractured relationship after a breakup.
