Bad Romance

Bad Romance is a pop song by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released as the first single from her second album The Fame Monster (2009). Produced by RedOne and written by herself, the lyrics were inspired by the paranoia Lady Gaga experienced while touring the world from 2008 to 2009. After a demo version of the song surfaced, the finished version of the song premiered at Alexander McQueen's show at Paris Fashion Week in October 2009.

The song was praised by most critics and compared to Gaga's second single Poker Face. Bad Romance became a commercial success, reaching #1 in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Austria and Germany, among other countries, while reaching #2 in states such as the US, Australia and New Zealand. Bad Romance was ranked as the ninth best song by Rolling Stone on their list of "25 Best Songs of 2009" and received a Grammy in the category of "Best Female Vocal Performance - Pop" on February 13, 2011. Worldwide, the song sold 9.7 million copies in 2010.

The accompanying video received critical acclaim and was nominated 10 times at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, winning 7 awards, including Video of the Year. The video also won a Grammy in the Best Short Form Music Video category.

Background

Bad Romance became the first single from The Fame Monster, Gaga's follow-up to her debut album The Fame. Even before the song's official release, a demo version of the song was illegally released on the internet, which Gaga commented on through Twitter, "leaked next single is makin my ears bleed. Wait till you hear the real version."/"Demo version of my next song makes my ears bleed. Wait till you hear the original version". She sang a short piece of the song on Saturday Night Live on October 3 with her other singles Poker Face and LoveGame. On October 6, 2009, Bad Romance premiered at designer Alexander McQueen's Paris Fashion Week show.

Lady Gaga stated Bad Romance was one of the songs she wrote in 2008 while she was on tour. The songs composed during this time were about different "monsters" (paranoia) she faced during the tour. One of these was the "love monster" and the inspiration for Bad Romance. Gaga said that she always felt alone in relationships. In Grazia Magazine, Gaga talked in more detail about her inspiration:

The cover image was released on October 15, 2009, and shows Gaga in a red dress, with her face down and covered by fabric.

Composition

The track was written by Lady Gaga and RedOne, while the latter produced the song. The song was recorded at Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles and FC Walvisch Recording Media Studios in Amsterdam. According to Gil Kauffman of MTV, the tempo of Bad Romance is similar to Gaga's earlier single Poker Face. The song begins and ends with a quote of the Fugue in B minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier (Part I) by Johann Sebastian Bach. The song then begins with the chorus, later changing to the "Rah-rah-ah-ah, Roma-roma-mah, Gaga-ooh-la-la" hookline. This is followed by the sound of the drum beats and keyboard. After the first verse comes the transition where Lady Gaga speaks the following, "You know that I want you, And you know that I need you, I want your bad, your bad romance". Then the whole chorus begins where she sings "I want your love, And I want your revenge, You and me could write a bad romance [...] Caught in a bad romance". During the intermezzo, Gaga sings the verses of the chorus in French: "Je veux ton amour, Et je veux ta revanche, Je veux ton amour".

The song is in A minor. The song follows a chord progression of Am-C-F-C-G or F-G-Am-C-F-G-E-Am in the chorus.