Bad Romance

"Bad Romance" is a song by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga from her third extended play (EP), The Fame Monster (2009)—the reissue of her debut studio album, The Fame (2008). Following an unauthorized demo leak, Gaga premiered the final version of the song during Alexander McQueen's 2010 Paris Fashion Week show in October 2009. Written and produced by Gaga alongside Moroccan-Swedish record producer RedOne, "Bad Romance" was released as the lead single from The Fame Monster on October 19, 2009. Musically, it is an electropop and dance-pop track with a spoken bridge and a hook featuring nonsense syllables. Inspired by German house and techno music, 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.

"Bad Romance" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its chorus, beat and hook. Commercially, the song was a global success, topping the record charts in more than 20 countries. It peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified eleven-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold 5.9 million digital downloads as of 2019. "Bad Romance" has sold 12 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time. The song won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and was included in annual "best-of" lists of 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 (APA) called "Bad Romance" one of the world's catchiest.

The accompanying 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. It ends as Gaga immolates the man who bought her. The video 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.