Bad Romance
"Bad Romance" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her third extended play (EP), The Fame Monster (2009)—the reissue of her debut studio album, The Fame (2008). Gaga wrote and produced the song with RedOne. Following an unauthorized demo leak, Gaga premiered the song's final version during the finale of Alexander McQueen's 2010 Paris Fashion Week show in October 2009 and released it as the lead single from The Fame Monster later that month. Musically, it is an electropop and dance-pop song with a spoken bridge. Inspired by German house and techno, the song was developed as an experimental pop record. Lyrically, Gaga drew from the paranoia she experienced while on tour and wrote about her attraction to unhealthy romantic relationships.
For other uses, see Bad Romance (disambiguation)."Bad Romance"
2009
October 19, 2009
2009
- Record Plant (Los Angeles)
- FC Walvisch (Amsterdam)
- 4:54 (album version)
- 4:21 (radio edit)
- Streamline
- KonLive
- Cherrytree
- Interscope
- Stefani Germanotta
- Nadir Khayat
"Bad Romance" was acclaimed by music critics for its chorus, beat and hook. Retrospective reviewers called it Gaga's best song. It topped the charts in more than 20 countries and sold 12 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time. In the US, the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified eleven times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold 5.9 million digital downloads as of 2019. "Bad Romance" won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and was included in annual "best-of" lists of the media outlets Rolling Stone and Pitchfork; the former named it one of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century and 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In a 2017 journal, which studied structural patterns in melodies of earworm songs, the American Psychological Association called "Bad Romance" the catchiest in the world.
The music video for "Bad Romance", directed by Francis Lawrence, features Gaga inside a surreal white bathhouse where she is kidnapped and drugged by supermodels who sell her to the Russian mafia for sexual slavery. The video ends as Gaga immolates the man who bought her. It garnered acclaim from critics for its fashion, choreography, costumes and symbolism. Briefly becoming the most-viewed YouTube video in 2010, it received a record ten nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards, winning seven, including Video of the Year. It received the Grammy Award for Best Music Video and was named the best music video of the 21st century by Billboard. Gaga has performed "Bad Romance" at television shows, award ceremonies, her concert tours and residency shows, and the Super Bowl LI halftime show.
Critical reception
"Bad Romance" received widespread critical acclaim.[26] It was named the best song on The Fame Monster by Maureen Lee Lanker of Entertainment Weekly.[27] It was included in lists of best songs of 2009 by Pitchfork—which called it "epic in construction"—MTV News and Rolling Stone.[28][29][30] Calling it one of the "most memorable pop singles" of the late 2000s, NME credits the song with establishing Gaga as an icon.[31] In his review of the album, Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork found it "arguably the best pop single" of 2009.[32]
"Bad Romance" was praised for its chorus, beat and hook. Kaufman lauded the drastic transition into a bombastic beat during the chorus,[2] which was called catchy by Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen,[33] one of Gaga's best by
MusicOMH's Michael Hubbard[34] and "so wonderfully big it dwarfs the industry of a million angry dudes with guitars" by NME's Emily Mackay.[35] Christopher John Farley from The Wall Street Journal praised the "Jabberwockian" catchiness of the hook.[36] Other reviewers commented on the song's sex appeal,[37] praised it for making Gaga's name a "Teutonic chant",[38] and called it a "turbocharged Euro-soul"[39] and a club-friendly tune that possessed a "sordid underbelly".[40]
"Bad Romance" was compared to Gaga's previous singles (including "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") by reviewers, with the criticism that it was not on par with them and lacked their instant catch.[2][22][37][41][42] Critics compared Gaga to other artists. Kitty Empire of The Guardian wrote "Bad Romance" made "this driven, uncharismatic Italian-American being [Gaga] the new Madonna",[43] and Spin's Josh Modell thought that with its "earworm nonsense lyric ('[r]a-ra-a-a-a, ra-ma, uh-uh-ah!')", the song "plays like the best Madonna song in ages".[44] Jon Blistein from L Magazine believed it is an amalgamation of a Cher song, "faux-European accented verse" and "bland spoken-word bridge".[45]
Chart performance
In the US, "Bad Romance" debuted at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 14, 2009, with 143,000 digital downloads.[46] After two weeks, the song reached number two, holding the spot for seven non-consecutive weeks. It was barred from the top position by Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" (featuring Alicia Keys) and later Kesha's "Tik Tok" (both 2009). The movement to number two was first prompted by a 49% digital gain, which led to the song's top spot on the Hot Digital Songs chart.[47] As of February 2019, "Bad Romance" has sold 5.9 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen Soundscan,[48] making Gaga the second artist after Katy Perry to have three singles—along with "Just Dance" and "Poker Face"—each sell five million digital copies.[49] After the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) started including video streams in their tabulation of the single certifications, "Bad Romance" was certified 11× platinum for 11 million in sales and streaming.[50] According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, it briefly set the record for most weekly plays in the 17-year history of the Pop Songs chart, registering 10,859 plays from 130 radio stations monitored for the chart.[51] Following Gaga's Super Bowl LI halftime show performance in 2017, "Bad Romance" re-entered the Hot 100 at number 50 and Digital Song Sales at number 9.[52] On the Canadian Hot 100, "Bad Romance" debuted at number 58,[53] and reached number one the following week.[54] Replaced by "Tik Tok" for two weeks, "Bad Romance" returned to the top spot on the chart.[55] Music Canada certified "Bad Romance" septuple platinum, denoting download sales of 280,000 copies.[56]
On the European Hot 100 Singles chart, "Bad Romance" spent two weeks at number one.[57] It topped the charts in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Sweden and Norway.[58][59][60] In the UK, "Bad Romance" debuted at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.[61] In December 2009, the song reached the top spot with 72,919 copies sold,[62] making Gaga the first female artist to have three number-one singles in one year.[a] It attained multi-platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[64] According to the British company Phonographic Performance Limited, the song was the UK's most played in 2010.[65] As of July 2022, "Bad Romance" has sold 1.7 million copies with 84 million streams, making it Gaga's third best selling single in the UK.[66]
"Bad Romance" debuted at number 16 on the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia and at number 33 on the RIANZ Singles Chart in New Zealand, before peaking at number two in both countries.[67][68] The song was certified eleven times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipment of 770,000 copies.[69] The song sold 9.7 million copies worldwide in 2010—making it the second best-selling of the year[70]—and 12 million as of 2018, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time.[71][26]
Cover versions
On March 29, 2010, Thirty Seconds to Mars covered the song in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge,[153] which reached number 11 on the UK Rock Chart.[154] Singer Lissie posted a cover of the song on YouTube, which received praise from filmmaker David Lynch.[155] The cast of the musical television series Glee performed it on an episode as a group number for which the actors donned Gaga outfits.[156] The song reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2010.[157] At the 46th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards, Linda Perry sang the song in a slowed down rendition, before Tony Bennett presented the Contemporary Icon Award to Gaga.[158] "Bad Romance" was briefly played on violin by Geoffrey Rush, portraying Albert Einstein in a promo for the National Geographic Channel historical anthology series Genius. The ad aired during Super Bowl LI immediately after Gaga's halftime performance.[159]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Fame Monster.[1]
Recording locations
Credits