Songfacts®:

• Addison Rae first rose to fame on TikTok before dipping her toes into music. Her debut single, "Obsessed," peaked at #110 in 2021, but then she stopped making music for a few years. After releasing an EP in 2023, Rae dropped "Diet Pepsi," her major label debut with Columbia Records, on August 9, 2024.
• With "Diet Pepsi," Rae wants us to forget about the bubblegum pop princess persona of her early music and embrace her new, more mature sound. She reaches back into the vinyl-scratched nostalgia of 1970s teenage love, invoking the era's spirit with lyrics that paint a vivid picture of youthful lust and rebellion. Here, Diet Pepsi gets gulped, blue jeans get ripped, and backseats get... well, put to use!
• Musically, "Diet Pepsi" stirs together sultry whispers with synth-driven melodies, nodding to the pop titans like Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Lana Del Rey. It's the kind of song where you half expect Lana herself to slink in halfway through, all dolled up in vintage Levi's, cradling a can of soda like it's a Fabergé egg.
• Rae penned this number with the producers Luka Kloser and Elvira Anderfjard, who know their way around a pop hook. Kloser's credits include songs for Ariana Grande ("Ordinary Things"), Tate McRae ("Grave") and Benee ("Green Honda"), while Elvira has remixed Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and "Willow" to great acclaim, and worked with the likes of Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran.
• The music video, directed by Sean Price Williams, is a frothy mix of flirtation and Americana kitsch, with Rae playfully navigating a backdrop of vintage diners and sun-soaked roads. It's all designed to stir feelings of summer love and impulsive, soda-fueled abandon.
• A few weeks after its release, "Diet Pepsi" started to bubble up charts in various territories. This was in no small part to TikTok, where dance challenges featuring the song popped up faster than you can say "algorithm."