olivia rodrigo sour joshua bassett sabrina

Every Song On Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘SOUR’ That Hints At The Rumoured Disney Love Triangle

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Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR is an absolute masterclass in jaded breakup anthems.

From angsty uptempo bangers like ‘Good 4 U’ and ‘Brutal’, to emotion-filled ballads ‘Deja Vu’ and ‘Traitor’, this album will make you feel all the feelings you’ve probably repressed since high school. The songs are so damn relatable that I feel simultaneously embarrassed and emancipated every time I listen.

While the album itself is simply sensational, it comes with an added layer of meaning with rumours abounding that the songs are about Olivia’s costar, Joshua Bassett, from Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Olivia and Joshua are rumoured to have dated while filming Season 1 of the show, but then shortly after splitting, Joshua was then linked to another singing Disney star: Girl Meets World’s Sabrina Carpenter. Oop! The drama of it all.

olivia rodrigo sour joshua

So does Olivia’s album make any references to the split? Lyrics are obviously interpretive, but I’d say absolutely! You could argue that every song on SOUR is about Joshua, but we’ve narrowed our list down to the tracks that make specific references to the Disney star and his rumoured girlfriend, Sabrina.

Let’s jump into it…

‘Traitor’

The song starts with Olivia singing, “Brown guilty eyes and little white lies,” and what colour do you reckon Joshua’s eyes are?

BROWN, BABY.

 

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A post shared by Joshua Bassett (@joshuatbassett)

That being said, another of Olivia’s rumoured exes and costars — Bizaardvark’s Ethan Wacker — also has brown eyes, so that lyric doesn’t specifically point just to Joshua…but it doesn’t rule him out, OK!

Olivia then sings, “Ain’t it funny how you ran to her, the second that we called it quits?” She goes on to say, “It took you two weeks to go off and date her. Guess you didn’t cheat, but you’re still a traitor.” All of this could be alluding to the fact that Joshua started dating Sabrina right after he split with Olivia. Last year in August, Rodrigo shared a TikTok about “failed relationships”, and a few months later Joshua and Sabrina posted a TikTok together. The betrayal!

‘Drivers License’

This song is practically a diary entry from Olivia’s breakup with Joshua. Olivia herself has said before that Joshua taught her how to drive. She sings, “You’re probably with that blonde girl, who always made me doubt. She’s so much older than me, she’s everything I’m insecure about,” and guess what? Sabrina is blonde and four years older than Olivia.

In reference to the song’s “white cars” lyric, Joshua does indeed drive a white car. In truth, there are loads of easter eggs laid throughout the song, so if you want to know more about ‘drivers license’ specifically, check out our exhaustive analysis here.

‘Deja Vu’

This song is truly loaded with nods to Joshua. The song starts with referencing “car rides to Malibu,” which seems to be a continuation of ‘drivers licence’, so therefore could be about the same ex. Oh and here’s a papped pic of Joshua and Sabrina driving to Malibu. You’re not subtle, Olivia!

One of ‘Deja Vu’s biggest clues that could point to Joshua is the mention of Billy Joel. Olivia sings, “I bet that she knows Billy Joel ’cause you played her ‘Uptown Girl’,” later adding, “Play her piano, but she doesn’t know, that I was the one who taught you Billy Joel.” So is Joshua a fan of Billy Joel? Yep! In an interview with MTV, he said, “I would say musically Billy Joel and Ed Sheeran inspired me for sure,” and here he is covering Billy Joel’s song ‘Vienna’.

It’s also worth noting, when Rodrigo said “her piano” that in this Cosmopolitan profile of Carpenter, a writer noted that in Sabrina’s Los Angeles home she had a “electric piano where she can make her own music”. Later in the song, Sabrina is possibly mentioned again when Olivia sings, “Another actress, I hate to think that I was just your type.” As we’ve already covered, Carpenter has worked as an actress on Disney’s Girl Meets World and more recently on Netflix’s Work It.

It’s worth adding that after Rodrigo released ‘Deja Vu’, Bassett posted a salty TikTok where he said,  “I’m just freaking out. I just found this out. Did you guys know that the world doesn’t revolve around you? Isn’t that crazy?” Is he shading Olivia’s words? Is he replying to lyrics like, “That was our place, I found it first”? Or is he responding to fans assuming that the lyrics are about him?! Who TF knows.

‘Good 4 U’

Like ‘Traitor’, this song references a two week gap between her split and her ex moving on to another girl. “Well, good for you, I guess you moved on really easily. You found a new girl and it only took a couple weeks,” she sings. This checks out, as Joshua did (allegedly) move quickly from Olivia to Sabrina.

Olivia then sings, “Well, good for you, I guess you’re gettin’ everything you want. You bought a new car and your career’s really takin’ off.” I’m not sure about a new car, but Joshua launched his first EP this year, even dropping his single ‘Lie Lie Lie’ just days after ‘drivers license’. Coincidence?

‘Enough For You’

This song is devastating and again, nods to her breakup with Joshua. As Vulture pointed out, the lyrics, “I read all of your self-help books, so you’d think that I was smart,” could be referencing Joshua’s love of self-help books. In an EW interview, Joshua said “I’ve been reading a lot and trying to work on myself and just grow,” and listed among his fave books: The Art of the Idea, This Thing Called You, and The Untethered Soul.  

‘Happier’

This is a beautiful tune and the lyrics, “We broke up a month ago. Your friends are mine, you know, I know,” might be pointing to their shared friendship group in the cast of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

‘Jealousy, Jealousy’

Most of this song is vague statements about feeling insecure while scrolling social media (huge mood!), but this one line stuck out to me: “In your daddy’s nice car, yeah, you’re livin’ the life. Got a pretty face, pretty boyfriend, too. I wanna be you so bad, and I don’t even know you.” Is she talking about Sabrina here? Sabrina’s family is rich, she’s related to The Simpson’s Nancy Cartright and has clearly lived a life of privilege, in fact when she was 10, her father built her a recording studio in their home.

Much to think about!! And while I’m doing that, I think it’s time to replay SOUR for the 164th time.