“Rivals” star Connor Story introduced Olivia Rodrigo during his second performance on Saturday Night Live, where she premiered an unreleased new song from her upcoming album.
Rodrigo performed the song titled “begged” while sitting on a swing, and the visual echoes the cover art for her third album, “You Look Like a Very Sad Thing for a Very Sad Girl,” which depicts her upside down on a swing. The album is scheduled to be released on June 12th.
This song is a calm, melancholic ballad centered around longing and anxiety. “All I want to know is that you definitely have eyes for me,” Rodrigo sang. “All I want is to sit here quietly and watch a movie on TV.”
The lyrics continue in a similarly intimate tone, with Rodrigo singing, “It’s a shame you’re not here/You’re here to witness my devotion and my endless needs,” before singing, “I feel trapped in my own life.”
Rodrigo recorded the album with longtime collaborator Dan Nigro, with whom he also worked on “Sour” and “Guts.” She previously described her new project as a collection of “sad love songs” written from a more introspective emotional place.
Earlier in the night, Rodrigo, who also served as host, opened the show with a monologue that reflected on her beginnings on the Disney Channel, “Visardvark,” reimagined into a DMV story about getting a Real ID, complete with a musical parody of her smash hit “Driver’s License.”
The performance comes after a busy period for Rodrigo, who recently performed on stage at Coachella with Addison Rae and also played a one-night-only show at The Echo in Los Angeles last week. Rodrigo first broke out in 2021 with “Sour,” followed by 2023’s “Guts,” and quickly became one of pop’s most commercially viable young artists, winning three Grammy Awards and receiving Album of the Year nominations for both albums.
Watch the entire performance below.
