"Paparazzi" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her debut studio album, The Fame (2008). It was released by Interscope Records as the fifth and final single from the album. Gaga wrote and co-produced the song with Rob Fusari. The song portrays Gaga's struggles in her quest for fame, as well as balancing success and love. Musically, it is an uptempo techno-pop and dance-pop ballad whose lyrics describe a stalker following somebody to grab attention and fame.
The music video was released on May 29, 2009, and "Paparazzi" was digitally released in Ireland and the UK on July 6, 2009, and physically in Australia on July 10. "LoveGame" was initially planned as the third single in the UK, but "Paparazzi" was chosen instead due to concerns over its lyrics and video. "Paparazzi" received critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching top ten positions in several countries and topping the charts in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Scotland.
The accompanying music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and portrays Gaga as a doomed starlet, hounded by photographers, who is almost killed by her boyfriend (played by Alexander Skarsgård). It shows her survival, comeback, revenge on her boyfriend, and experiences on the way to fame. The video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. Gaga performed the song at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in a performance art piece symbolizing the negative effect of fame leading to death, which was later nominated for VMAs Most Iconic Performance in 2024. Additional live performances of the song took place during many of her concert tours and residency shows.
Background and release Before she rose to fame, Lady Gaga met music producer Rob Fusari in March 2006 and began dating him in May. Gaga traveled daily to New Jersey to work on songs she had written and compose new material with Fusari. While working together, he compared some of her vocal harmonies to those of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. He also created the "Lady Gaga" moniker after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Although the musical relationship between Fusari and Gaga was unsuccessful at first, the pair soon started writing more songs for Gaga. Towards the end of 2007, Gaga's management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed.
By 2008, Gaga relocated to Los Angeles to work extensively with her record label to complete her debut album, The Fame, and set up her own creative team called the Haus of Gaga. "Paparazzi" was one of the songs written by Gaga and Fusari who also produced the track. In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Gaga recalled her relationship with a heavy metal drummer called Luke, who became an inspiration for most of the songs on The Fame, including "Paparazzi". The song became a symbol for Gaga to escape her own narcissism and desire for fame. She was infatuated with Luke, calling him "the love of her life", and ready to be his fan, to turn the camera around and photograph him.
To the Australian Daily Telegraph, Gaga explained that "Paparazzi" was about struggling to balance success and love. Further explanations said that the song was about trying to win the paparazzi and the media in one's favor. "It's a love song for the cameras, but it's also a love song about fame or love – can you have both, or can you only have one", she concluded. "Paparazzi" was the album's third single in Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom, the fourth in Canada and the United States and the fifth in Australia, France and New Zealand. Although released on July 6, 2009, in the United Kingdom and four days later in Australia, "LoveGame" initially had been planned as the third single release in the former but deeming its lyrics and music video potentially controversial, it was decided that "Paparazzi" would be released instead.
Recording and composition
"Paparazzi" was recorded at 150 Studios in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. Along with the production and songwriting of the track, Gaga also did the background vocals and played piano and synthesizer. Calvin "Sci-Fidelty" Gaines did the programming and Fusari did the audio engineering and recording. Other personnel involved in creating the final version of the song included Robert Orton who did the audio mixing, and Gene Grimaldi who mastered the song at Oasis Mastering Studios, Burbank, California.
"Paparazzi" is a dance-pop and techno-pop song with an uptempo, sultry beat similar to Gaga's previous singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". Sheet music for "Paparazzi" shows the key of C minor with a tempo of 115 beats per minute, with the chorus in A major. It is set in common time, and the vocal range spans from G3 to E5. The verses follow in the chord progression of Cm–A–Cm and the chorus uses an A–E–Fm–D progression. The lyrics of "Paparazzi" deal with stalking and the trappings of fame. Gaga sings about her desire to get attention from the cameras: "I'm your biggest fan/I'll follow you until you love me/Papa, paparazzi." According to The Independent, the track explores "narcissism and celebrity and how we're all guilty participants in pop culture."
Critical reception The song received acclaim from music critics and has been considered one of the best songs in Gaga's discography years after its release. In 2011, Rolling Stone called it the second greatest Gaga song of all time, praising the song's theme and beat. Jill Menze of Billboard, while reviewing The Fame Ball Tour, complimented Gaga's vocals on the song by saying, "The fame-obsessed ballad 'Paparazzi' showed how adept she can be with her range." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian said that, "You may quickly tire of hearing the album's theme constantly reiterated, but the tune of 'Paparazzi' takes up residence in your brain and refuses to budge." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the song clever and said that it "functions simultaneously as glorious pop trash and a wicked parody of it."
Priya Elan of The Times thought that "even the trio of songs that provides the core of the album's celebrity theme ('Paparazzi', 'Beautiful Dirty Rich' and the title track) don't ruminate on the addictive inanity of fame, choosing instead to observe passively." David Balls from Digital Spy praised Gaga's decision of releasing a mid-tempo track after two uptempos ("Just Dance" and "Poker Face") saying that "thanks to a typically catchy chorus and some smart, celebrity-themed lyrics, very nearly as thrilling in the finish. Backed with a hilariously self-indulgent video, it seems GaGa still has us firmly in her clutch and, ahem, squealing for more."
Evan Sawdey of PopMatters said that both "Paparazzi" and the earlier single "Poker Face" are comparable with the musical styles of first single "Just Dance" but added that "never once does it feel like Gaga is deliberately repeating herself, instead, her faults only come from covering territory that she's obviously not prepared for." Freedom du Lac of The Washington Post said that even though Gaga turns somewhat serious while disapprovingly singing "Paparazzi", the song comes across as flat and faceless as well as vapid. Erika Howard of the New Times Broward-Palm Beach called it the most telling track from the album. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times said that "'Paparazzi' is a love letter from camera to subject but stops short of admitting the affection runs both ways. Any notion that Lady Gaga is sketching an elaborate stunt is stopped cold at the lyric sheet, a perverse flaunting of simplicity that betrays no cynicism whatsoever."
NME ranked it at number 9 in their list of the best songs of 2009. Pitchfork ranked "Paparazzi" number 83 on their list of 2009's 100 best tracks, and noted it proved powerful enough to set Gaga apart from the wave of Madonnabes, adding that it "turned out to be the best Madonna song of the 21st century". Kristen S. Hé of Vulture in 2025 called it Gaga's fourth best track, who felt "on the radio in 2009, it sounded alluring and dangerous — there was nothing else like it". The same year, Adam White of The Independent named "Paparazzi" Gaga's third best, noting that although it wasn't her debut single, it "felt like her proper arrival, highlighting her romanticism, her vulnerability and, even more than 'Poker Face', her genius when it comes to killer hooks."
Chart performance In the United States, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 74 on the issue dated September 12, 2009, and reached a peak of number six, becoming her fourth consecutive top-ten single on the chart. With the song, Gaga joined Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, and Fergie as the only women this decade to collect four Hot 100 top-tens from a debut album. It also reached the top of Billboard Pop Songs chart, thus making Gaga the first artist in the 17-year history of Pop Songs chart to have her first four singles from a debut album reach the top of the chart. The song also topped the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. As of February 2018, it has sold 3.6 million digital downloads in the United States according to Nielsen Soundscan. It became Gaga's fourth song to top the three-million mark, and was certified five-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Paparazzi" debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 92 and moved up to number 57 the following week becoming the week's greatest digital gainer. The song ultimately peaked at number three on the chart, in its 13th week.
"Paparazzi" debuted on the official Australian Singles Chart at number 73 on the issue dated June 1, 2009, and leaped to 27 the next week. The song ultimately peaked at number two, giving Gaga her fourth top five single in Australia. The song was certified six times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 420,000 copies. In New Zealand, "Paparazzi" debuted at number 23 on the week ending June 22, 2009, and reached a peak of number five. The song was later certified double platinum by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ), for shipping over 60,000 copies.
In the UK, "Paparazzi" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 99 in February 2009 due to digital downloads after the release of The Fame. It reached number 13 for the issue dated June 21, 2009, after jumping from 43 to this position from the last week. The next week the song further climbed to number eight and ultimately peaked at number four. As of January 2025, the song has sold 1.3 million copies in the UK with 75 million streams. and is certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Paparazzi" debuted at number 38 on the Irish Singles Chart and peaked at number four. "Paparazzi" reached number one in Germany, making it her second chart-topper there. The song also debuted on the Dutch Top 40 at number 27 on the issue dated July 18, 2009. It peaked at number four on its sixth week on the chart. In Italy, the song debuted at number 19 and then climbed to number three, becoming Gaga's second top three there. The song also debuted on the French Singles Charts at number 6 on the issue dated December 12, 2009 and remained at the number six for three weeks, before dropping at number 7 the first week of 2010, dated January 2, 2010 and stay in the top ten for 5 weeks and 33 weeks in the top 100, becoming Gaga's fourth top ten in France.<ref name="fra"/>
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