12 Years of Bad Romance

[TheDemonIClingTo 1,018]

On 10/19/2021 at 1:01 AM, NeonSkeleton said:

Rah rah ah-ah-ah,

Roma roma-ma,

Gaga ooh la la,

Want your bad romance.

Written and produced by the dream team of Lady Gaga & RedOne, ‘Bad Romance’ was released as the lead single from The Fame Monster on 19 October 2009 to European radio (the digital download followed in the next few days). The lyrics explore Gaga’s feelings of loneliness in a relationship, discuss being in love with her best friend, and question her own preference for the wrong men.

The song’s iconic hook, spoken-word French vocals and soaring chorus melody launch it into the stratosphere, backed by an experimental pop production which takes cues from electropop and German house and techno. After topping the charts in over 20 countries, the song has sold 12 million copies worldwide to become one of the best-selling singles of all time - and is certified 2x Platinum in the UK, 4x Platinum in Australia and 11x Platinum in the US.

The impact of Bad Romance is undeniable. Gaga’s signature song (at least until Shallow), Rolling Stone voted it the 482nd greatest song of all time (and Gaga’s best), and it won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Combining references to fashion and Alfred Hitchcock films with multilingual lyrics, growled vocals, ferociously effective dance-pop beats and an irresistible melody, ‘Bad Romance’ built on the success of the singles from The Fame and cemented Lady Gaga’s place as one of the most creative minds in pop music. To this day, it remains stately yet psychotic, plaintive yet powerful. In short: a pop juggernaut.

‘I want your ugly, I want your disease’, all of those things that I’m saying, it’s like when you love someone so much and your fear of losing someone is so, so deep that- ‘I want your psycho, I want your ugly’, I want all the most disgusting parts of you that you think nobody will ever love. I love all of those things. The song’s about being in love with your best friend, whether that’s a literal situation or just you maybe wanted to tell someone that you loved them but you couldn’t - it’s a bad romance.’ - Lady Gaga

Here’s the iconic Francis Lawrence-directed music video (actually released a month later, on 10 November), which Billboard readers voted the best video of the 2000s:

Here’s a favourite early performance of Bad Romance, at the 2009 American Music Awards, where it segued into an equally iconic rendition of Speechless:

And here’s the absolutely spellbinding acoustic version that Gaga performed for Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday, later featured in her documentary Five Foot Two:

What are your memories of this iconic song? Do you remember where you were when you first heard it? What’s your favourite live performance of the song? Let me know below:) 

[And before any of you Americans come for me, it’s 19 October already in the UK ]

The underlined text is the best thing I've ever read on this site. And even though I love anything she sings, in my heart Shallow can never replace Bad Romance, nothing can