Songfacts®:

• This piano-led track finds Olivia Rodrigo trying to wish her ex the best after he's moved on with another girlfriend. She hopes he's happy with his new sweetheart, but not as happy as he was with her.
• Rodrigo recorded the song for her debut album, Sour, a record that shines the light on the painful "sour" emotions teenagers endure. This is one of several tracks where she examines her feelings of anger, jealousy and sadness when an ex leaves her for another girl. Some songs, including "Drivers License" and "Traitor," find her expressing her fury at his breaking her heart. This one finds her more resigned to the breakup and self-critical about her resentment towards his new girl.
• This is one of two tracks on Sour that Rodrigo wrote on her own, the other being "Enough for You." She originally demoed the song back in 2020.
• Dan Nigro, Olivia Rodrigo's go-to collaborator, produced "Happier." In fact, this was the track that first brought her to his attention. Nigro explained to Billboard that, intrigued after the teenager emailed him some of her material, he went on her Instagram and found this song. The producer immediately "got the chills" listening to Rodrigo's "insane" voice. Nigro DM'd her and said they should make some music together.
• Dan Nigro plays all the instruments on this track apart from Paul Cartwight's violin and viola.
• Olivia Rodrigo wrote "Happier" on the set of a show she was filming. "It's so funny - inspiration just strikes at random times," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I was in between takes and I was like 'Oh, I have this idea,' and then I just wrote the song on set. So that's always fun when you kind of get a lightning bolt of an idea."
• In her Disney+ documentary Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film), Rodrigo recalled posting "Happier" online, then looking back on it and thinking it's a terrible song. It had no likes, and she sang it terribly. But Rodrigo had a gut feeling the song had potential, and she was right - it changed everything for her. "The fact that I posted it was the reason that I met Dan," she said, "because he found it and was like, 'Oh my God, I love this song. We should work together.'"