Olivia Rodrigo announced a remix of “expectations” featuring Chappell Roan on October 13, 2026, and the single and its video are due Thursday, October 15, at 5PM Pacific via Interscope, per Universal Music Canada's release. Daniel Nigro produced it, and it is Roan's first ever feature.
The song is track 12 on Rodrigo's third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, released June 12, 2026 on Geffen Records. The remix video was directed by Bardia Zeinali and shows both singers, and the record is coming out on physical formats too: limited-edition 7" vinyl, CDs and cassettes, sold through both artists' stores.
Which day does the remix come out, Thursday or Friday?
Thursday, according to the only official word. The release posted by Universal Music Canada on October 13 says the single and video drop at 5PM PST on Thursday, October 15. Two other dates have been floating around, and it is worth saying exactly where they came from.
On October 12, before anything was announced, the music blog InMusic reported that the German retailer JPC had a listing for a limited 7-inch single titled “Expectations (with Chappell Roan)” with a projected release around October 16 through Interscope. InMusic said neither artist had confirmed the collaboration at that point. Separately, The Sun's Bizarre column claimed the remix would arrive Friday, October 16, a claim repeated by Music-News and FemaleFirst on October 13. The label's Thursday evening time in Los Angeles is already Friday morning in Europe, which may explain the gap, but that is our reading, not anyone's statement.
The teasing had started a day earlier. On Monday, October 12, a short studio clip appeared on Rodrigo's Instagram Stories, according to FemaleFirst and Music-News, with a voice believed to be Roan's saying “Olivia does remixes now.”
How far back do Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan go?
Further than one festival. Roan was one of the openers on Olivia Rodrigo's first headline run, the Sour Tour, which ran from April to July 2022, and played a San Francisco date for her, PinkNews and Rolling Stone report. Two years later, Rodrigo picked her to open the first 24 shows of the Guts World Tour. On August 20, 2024, Rodrigo brought her out at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood to sing “Hot to Go!” together.
The studio link is Dan Nigro, who produced all three of Rodrigo's albums and Chappell Roan's breakthrough record. PinkNews, citing a credits sleuth, found Roan singing background vocals on three Guts songs, “bad idea right?”, “lacy” and “obsessed”. Roan explained the casual way that happened to Rolling Stone:
We all work out of the same studio and Dan is like ‘Are you free right now, can you come help?’Chappell Roan, quoted by Rolling Stone
An opening slot in 2022, background vocals in 2023, a credit with her name on it in 2026.
The most recent turn came on August 29, 2026, at Daisy Chain Fields, Rodrigo's women-led festival at Great Park in Irvine, California, which the label says raised $20 million for 10 nonprofits. Roan was on its announced lineup. Six weeks later, she is on the record.
Why does a remix matter this deep into the album cycle?
Because both artists are in very different places. Rodrigo's album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and The Unraveled Tour, which began in Hartford on September 25, has sold over 1 million tickets, per the label. Pollstar's schedule, as of its May 2026 expansion to 86 shows, ends at The O2 in London on May 10, 2027. A new version of an album cut gives that long run a fresh moment.
Roan, meanwhile, has not put out a full new project since her debut, a gap we covered in our piece on the missing second album. Her first feature landing on a friend's record, rather than her own, says something about how she is choosing to come back. And the way fans heard about it, a retailer's product page in Germany before either singer said a word, is now a familiar part of how big releases leak out.
The answer to whether the remix lives up to its setup arrives Thursday evening, Pacific time.