How Bad Do U Want Me


"How Bad Do U Want Me" is a song by American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga from her studio album Mayhem. Interscope Records released it as the album's ninth track on March 7, 2025. It was written and produced by Gaga, Andrew Watt, and Cirkut, with additional songwriting contributions from Michael Polansky. Music critics described the song as synth-pop, drawing comparisons to the pop-oriented work of Taylor Swift.
Gaga performed "How Bad Do U Want Me" live on multiple occasions, including her 2025 promotional concerts—where she walked along the runway in a Victorian-style outfit—and as the encore of Mayhem Ball">Mayhem (Lady Gaga album)">Mayhem Ball tour, during which the camera followed her as she returned from backstage in casual clothing after removing her makeup.

Background and release

In an interview for Las Culturistas, Lady Gaga admitted that she started writing "How Bad Do U Want Me" on her own in home, before being joined by her fiancé Michael Polansky. Polansky was interested in the song's lyrical content, asking whether she is singing about him, which she denied. The two finished the track with Andrew Watt and Cirkut, who both additionally produced it alongside Gaga. Paul Lamalfa recorded the track at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California and Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles; Marco Sonzini provided additional engineering, while Tyler Harris and Tommy Turner worked as assistant engineers. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea at Mixstar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound Studios in Edgewater, New Jersey. Gaga additionally played keyboards; Watt played drums, electric guitar, and keyboards; and Cirkut played synthesizer and keyboards and provided drum and bass programming. Bryce Bordone worked as the assistant mixing engineer, and Marc VanGool served as the studio technician.
Gaga announced her studio album Mayhem on January 27, 2025, setting its release date on March 7. Next month, she unveiled the track listing, featuring "How Bad Do U Want Me" as the album's ninth track. Gaga admitted that she almost scrapped the song from the track listing, stating that she gets anxious about her "super pop" tracks, pointing out that she almost removed "Just Dance" from The Fame for the same reason.

Composition

"How Bad Do U Want Me" is a 1980s-inspired "dreamy" synth-pop song. The Independent Adam White believed the track is "built around a Yazoo sample ", while The Arts Desk described it as "Yazoo-goes-Europop".
According to Vulture Kristen S. Hé, the track explores Gaga's internal conflict between her personal identity and her public persona. The song portrays her struggle to separate Stefani from the constructed image of Lady Gaga, which influences how others, including her partner, perceive and desire her. The chorus of "How Bad Do U Want Me" suggests she is not merely asking how much she is wanted, but rather questioning how much of a "bad girl" she is expected to be. The lyrics directly address the tension between being desired for a stereotype versus the real person, with Gaga satirising how others perceive her. This ties into the song's exploration of image vs. reality in desire.

Critical reception

DIY Ben Tipple called "How Bad Do U Want Me" a straightforward yet unmistakably Gaga track, "brimming with her distinctive energy," and praised its chorus as "another example of Gaga's skills for unfiltered earworms." Thomas Stremfel of Spectrum Culture believed the song aligns more closely with Carly Rae Jepsen's melodic and thematic style than with Mayhem lead single, "Disease"–previously the only clue to the record's potential sound–, ultimately emerging as a standout track thanks to its "big sing-along" chorus. Clash Robin Murray felt "the electronic erotica of 'How Bad Do U Want Me' is ready to induce heart palpitations across the globe." Beats Per Minute praised the track for "amping up the inherent kitschiness of the era" with its "euphoric chorus" and highlighted Gaga's charm in playing a "cheeky eighties pop star who is not quite as innocent as her sweet voice suggests."
Various fans and music critics noted strong resemblance between "How Bad Do U Want Me" and Taylor Swift's pop songs. Comparisons were made mainly to Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, and the song "Gorgeous" from the following album, Reputation. Some listeners also drew the parallels to the Midnights tracks "Snow on the Beach" and "Hits Different"–the former gathered comparisons due to similarly distant backing vocals, while RTL's Aymeric Parthonnaud likened "How Bad Do U Want Me" sonicscape to the latter one's. Her Campus writer Makalah Wright, said that "How Bad Do U Want Me" and "Gorgeous" sound alike, however lyrically they are completely different. In a deep analysis, KTLA writer Russell Falcon opined that, in his interpretation, Gaga is "evoking her musical spirit for an artistic purpose." He wrote: "Lady Gaga is being haunted by Taylor Swift," arguing Gaga perhaps sees Swift's pop music omnipresence as a reminder of where, at one point, Gaga's own career appeared to be headed and how it might feel to live with that.
Stephen Daw of Billboard found it to be the worst song of the album, thinking it "falls flat with its power-pop leanings." He compared its lyrics and instrumental to those from Swift's discography, elaborating that the song "feels like one of the only songs that doesn't fit her vision". MusicOMH Donovan Livesey also saw "How Bad Do U Want Me" as the album's weakest point; while enjoying it as well-produced and engaging, he found the chorus overly influenced by Swift, making Gaga seem less original than usual. Dakota West Foss of Sputnikmusic felt "How Bad Do U Want Me" is "a tongue-in-cheek attempt" at the "modern iteration of Taylor Swift's lifeless synthpop that is every bit the knockout that Gaga dropping a weight class would be – there's even a stratospheric bridge that calls 'Cruel Summer' to mind."

Commercial performance

During the release week of Mayhem, "How Bad Do U Want Me" entered the [Billboard Global 200|Billboard Global 200] at number 52. It was one of twelve tracks from the album to appear on the chart, ranking as the sixth highest-charting track among them. In the United States, the song debuted at number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, it entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 55.
"How Bad Do U Want Me" was unable to enter the UK Singles Chart, as chart rules prohibit a single artist from having more than three songs charting in the same week; "Abracadabra", "Die with a Smile", and "Garden of Eden" were at numbers 3, 18, and 23, respectively. However, the song entered the UK charts for List of [UK Singles Sales Chart number ones|best-selling singles], most-downloaded singles, and most-streamed singles at lower positions.

Live performances

Gaga first sang "How Bad Do U Want Me" live at her 2025 promotional concerts for Mayhem, which included a headlining set at Coachella. She began her performance at a skull-covered keyboard, then moved along the runway by the second verse, wearing a blue Victorian-style coat, black "Maleficent-esque" horns, and lace-up stiletto boots reminiscent of those she wore in the music video for "Rain on Me". Reviewing Gaga's performance at Copacabana beach, Correio da Manhã Lanna Silveira wrote it was one of the few weak points of the show, as it clashed with the other songs from the setlist, and slowed the pace of the concert. On May 13, 2025, the track was part of a five-song set at the YouTube Brandcast event, held at the Geffen Hall in New York City.
Gaga performed "How Bad Do U Want Me" as the closing song during the Mayhem Ball, as part of the encore. The performance featured a live backstage video feed projected on screen, showing Gaga in her dressing room backstage, wiping off her makeup with a towel and changing into casual clothing, including an oversized sweater, a beanie, and dark sunglasses, before returning to the main arena to finish the show. Billboard Joe Lynch believed the performance "was clearly a victory lap for Mother Monster, who dropped the dramatic pretenses and simply allowed herself to exist as a human on a stage". Adam Maidment of Manchester Evening News found it a "simple, effective and a beautiful finish". The performance received journalist comparisons to Gaga's similarly makeup-free rendition of "Hold My Hand" at the 95th Academy Awards. On January 14, 2026, Gaga performed the song at Mayhem: Requiem, a one-off concert held at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Mayhem.