"Expectations" is the debut solo single by American singer and songwriter Lauren Jauregui, released on October 24, 2018. It is a guitar-driven R&B song written by Jauregui and produced by Kid Harpoon, about an unresponsive relationship and the assumptions that people have and try to change about them. Jauregui first performed the track in June 2018, as the opening act for Halsey's Hopeless Fountain Kingdom Tour in Latin America. "Expectations" received positive reviews from critics who praised Harpoon's production and Jauregui's musicianship. The song's black-and-white music video was creatively directed and co-edited by Jauregui, and portrays two opposing facets of the artist. Background "Expectations" is one of the first songs Jauregui wrote while she was in a process of self-exploration and re-evaluation post Fifth Harmony's disbandment. She premiered the track in June 2018 in São Paulo, Brazil, along with two other songs she wrote, as the opening act for Halsey's Hopeless Fountain Kingdom Tour in Latin America. Jauregui said the fans' passionate response to the song when she performed it inspired her to release it. Jauregui later said that she was "putting the final touches" to the song. She gave fans a brief preview of her upcoming single on October 1, 2018 with an 18-second snippet of its video. She said of "Expectations" as her debut solo song: "Just the context of it and the mood of it, I feel like is a really great introduction to the world that I'm about to give people." Composition Composed in a compound time signature, "Expectations" is a guitar-driven, slow-burning, soulful R&B song. Lyrically, "Expectations" finds Jauregui depicting a relationship state in which her partner does not appear to be responsive. It expresses vulnerable assumptions and the struggle of wanting to change the situation. Jauregui said that the record is an "exploration of when you’re in a relationship with someone and you don’t want to have expectations. But they kind of get in the way, regardless". She wrote the song after experiencing something that made her "upset". She went in the studio the following the day and wrote it in about 30 minutes. She also produced the vocals. Jauregui played with double meaning for the single, simultaneously alluding to expectations on her output post-Fifth Harmony. Billboard editor Gil Kaufman said that in the slow and sultry song, Jauregui's vocals rise into an "urgent moan" on the "pleading" chorus, and the track's "smoky, late