Time is irrelevant when I’ve not been seeing ya
If Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of your favorite movies; One Direction’s new song Olivia might be nearly impossible to get out of your head – especially a part towards the end sung by Harry Styles. Harry drew attention to this specific weeks before the album release without really specifying why, but he did post them on a special “anniversary” of sorts.
The summertime, and butterflies, all belong to your creation.
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) October 2, 2015
October 2nd, the anniversary of Louis’ ‘Always in my heart’ tweet is a day fans of Louis and Harry pay close attention to since 2011 when Louis originally posted the very public display of affection to Harry.
Always in my heart @Harry_Styles . Yours sincerely, Louis
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) October 2, 2011
Right after that tweet things changed in a very big way for Louis and Harry, so the significance of the tweet only grew over time, and when it became the second most retweeted tweet ever; it became that much more important.
Could it be a coincidence that Harry chose lyrics from Olivia to tweet on the anniversary? Of course it could!
Something else that could be seen as a coincidence? The way this song makes fans think back to another two tweets made by Harry and Louis.
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) August 9, 2011
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) August 9, 2011
While absolutely none of this cements that this song is about Harry and Louis; it isn’t crazy for fans to see similarities and connections and assume it could be either.
Regardless of what inspired the song; this is one of the most fan favorite, talked about, enjoyable songs on Made In The A.M! Harry co-wrote on this track and Julian Bunetta, who assisted in the process, had a lot to say about the way Olivia came to life.
“This one is very near and dear to my heart. Harry, John [Ryan, co-writer] and I were in Westlake and trying to write one thing and came out with this. I don’t know how it came out. We couldn’t write anything for a couple days, and we couldn’t focus. We were trying to write things, and they were bad. Then we would just laugh and order food and hang out. Then all of a sudden, at the very end of the day when Harry was going to leave, he was sort of saying the chorus phrase, so we just sat there and wrote it really quick. It came out really, really quick. That one was so fun because it has a full orchestra we recorded at Abbey Road: four trumpets, four trombones, three french horns, flute, clarinet, harp. That was an incredibly adult, musically indulgent song that we all had a lot of fun making. It makes me so happy. But ‘Olivia’ was Harry’s genius.”
We can totally see Harry sitting around with his hair pulled up in a bun, drinking some tea, and humming a bit of a tune before sort of singing the chorus of Olivia. He probably started off a little bit quiet – trying to figure out what he was coming up with – and suddenly singing it louder because regardless of where it would end up, it was catchy and fun!
Olivia‘s message is a little bit love, a little bit nerves, and a little bit “I need you to understand right now how much you mean to me”. The song is a little bit needy; like it could all fall apart if there’s not some grand gesture made but there’s not an element of worry – almost like they know that the love they’ve got is enough to make it through anything.
Olivia – to us – sounds like a song that’s just supposed to serve as a reminder to someone who might not get told enough that they’re the absolute sun in their lover’s life. Maybe schedules make it hard, maybe it’s assumed that they already know, or maybe it’s supposed to look like one thing when its actually something more and suddenly there aren’t as many sweet text messages or surprise dinners and you notice that the person you love is sitting right next to you but they feel a million miles away.
Sometimes grand gestures of love come in the form of songs that get caught in your head so that when your lover hears them – they won’t be easily forgotten.
Olivia is one of those grand gestures.