Taylor Swift Receives Writing Credit on Olivia Rodrigo's "Deja Vu"

Rodrigo previously revealed that her "Deja Vu" single was inspired by Swift's 2019 track "Cruel Summer," which was co-written by St. Vincent and Jack Antonoff.

July 9, 2021

Olivia Rodrigo is giving credit where credit is due.

As pointed out by Rolling Stone, the 18-year-old artist and producer Daniel Nigro listed Taylor Swift as a songwriter on “Deja Vu”—the second single off Rodrigo’s debut studio album Sour. Rodrigo previously revealed that the song’s bridge was heavily inspired by Swift’s 2019 “Cruel Summer” track, which was co-written by Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent.

“I love ‘Cruel Summer.’ That’s one of my favorite songs ever,” she told Rolling Stone’s The Breakdown. “I love the yell-y vocal in it, the harmonized yells she does. I feel like they’re super electric and moving, so I wanted to do something like that.”

More than a month after Sour’s release, Swift, Antonoff, and St. Vincent were finally listed as co-writers on “Deja Vu’s” Spotify and TIDAL metadata; however, it’s unclear why the credits were added retroactively.

This isn’t the only credit Swift received on Rodrigo’s chart-topping album. The Evermore singer and her frequent collaborator Antonoff were also listed as co-writers on Sour’s “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” cut. Rodrigo spoke about the credits in a recent interview with Zach Sang, confirming her song “borrowed” elements from one of Swift’s Reputation tracks.

“We interpolated ‘New Year’s Day,’ which is Taylor’s song from Reputation,” she revealed. “I came up with the ‘1 Step Forward’ concept, and I sort of wrote a verse and a chorus … I was in the car on a road trip, and when I got home, I decided to sing it over the chords of ‘New Year’s Day.’ I think they’re really beautiful chords. I was lucky enough to get that approved, and it’s on the record now.”

Sour hit streaming services at the end of May and has topped the Billboard 200 twice during its five-week run.