The track appears on British singer Sienna Spiro’s debut album, Visitor.
Sienna Spiro stopped by The Tonight Show to perform her single “Great Expectation,” taking the stage with a live band and two backup singers. She delivered a sultry, impassioned rendition of the anthemic song.
“Great Expectation” is featured on Spiro’s debut album, Visitor, which dropped earlier this month. She released a music video for the track on the same day, recreating the red‑and‑white backdrop of her live performance on The Tonight Show.
In a review, Rolling Stone wrote, “She sings with an intensity that shows how emotionally invested she is in the stories she’s sharing. The anger and the sadness and the cynicism is what she uses to fuel these performances — the best of which appears on the standout ‘Great Expectation.’”
Spiro explained that the song draws from a time she spent in New York, where a person repeatedly promised to visit. “Every morning I’d walk down the stairs of the apartment building and, for a second, genuinely believe he’d be outside waiting. Then I’d spend the next five minutes walking down the street imagining what I’d say, what it would feel like, what would happen if they were really there. He never came,” she said.
She added, “The song became less about that person, and more about expectation itself—whether it’s a beautiful hope or a setup for disappointment. Knowing deep down he would never be who I wanted, I found comfort in the idea of him existing rather than facing nothingness.”
Spiro previously appeared on The Tonight Show in January to perform her song “Die on This Hill.” Host Jimmy Fallon praised her performance, declaring on air, “You are fantastic!”
