"Pretty Girls" is a song recorded by American singer Britney Spears and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. Azalea co-wrote the song with Maegan Cottone, British girl group Little Mix, and the song's producers, The Invisible Men. The single was released on May 4, 2015, by RCA Records.
The music video for "Pretty Girls" premiered on May 13, 2015, and was directed by Azalea and Cameron Duddy. The visuals were inspired by the 1988 film Earth Girls Are Easy, starring Geena Davis. The song was performed live by Spears and Azalea for the first time on May 17 at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. Later that year, it was added to the setlist for Spears' Las Vegas residency show, Britney: Piece of Me.
The collaboration peaked within the top 20 in the United Kingdom, Canada, Hungary, Scotland, and South Korea as well as the top 30 in the United States, France, and Australia. The track also received two nominations at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards.
Background and release On September 9, 2014, during an interview with Extra at The Intimate Britney Spears Collection launch in New York City, Spears revealed she had slowly but steadily started working on a new album. When asked who she would like to collaborate with, Spears said she would like to do something with Katy Perry or Iggy Azalea. Rumors began to circulate that a collaboration between the two artists was already in the works, with Azalea saying she had done a "secret collaboration" with someone she had been interested in.
In December 2014, Azalea told Kiss 108 backstage at their Jingle Ball Tour 2014 that their collaborative song would premiere in 2015, "We have a song, which is going to be her first single, coming out next year." Asked how the collaboration came about, Azalea added, "She said she would like to work with me in an interview and they reached out. We recorded a few different things and then one of those just ended up being, I think, undeniably great. Hopefully I think everybody will get to hear it at the beginning of next year." In February 2015, Azalea tweeted there were "epic" ongoing plans for the song. For Spears's Billboard magazine cover story, published online on March 12, 2015, it was reported that despite Spears being back in the recording studio as back as in September 2014 working on a duet with Azalea, among other tracks, a proper full-length album would not be coming soon. Spears further explained, "I'm gonna do [a new album] slowly but surely [...] I'm gonna try to do my best to do an amazing album, but it's not my full priority right now". Azalea confirmed the title of the track the following week. Afterwards, in Spears's cover story with People magazine, it was announced that "Pretty Girls" would be released on May 5.
On March 29, 2015, on the red carpet of the 2nd iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles, Azalea confirmed "Pretty Girls" would be featured on Spears' upcoming album during an interview with MTV News and explained the song's evolution mentioning its final version being a real duet with her also joining Spears on the chorus instead of an actual featured rapping. When describing the song in an interview with USA Today, Azalea said, "It's just a lot of fun. It's a classic, girly (song) you want to scream to each other when you're getting ready". Although the collaboration was finished in fall 2014, Azalea did not meet Spears in person until January 2015, when she invited Spears to her house for lunch.
On April 30, 2015, the single artwork, an illustration of the artists in an outer space background referring to the '80s film Earth Girls Are Easy, was unveiled online. Portions of the song began surfacing on the internet later that day, and the song leaked in its entirety on May 2, 2015, two days prior to its official release. On May 3, 2015, Spears announced she had teamed up with Uber to give fans an early listen of the song. For six hours between 3pm-9pm PDT on that day, requesters in Los Angeles were able to ride select Britney-themed vehicles called "Bees" while listening to the song and have a chance to win surprise gifts and tickets to her show, Britney: Piece of Me in Las Vegas. On May 4, 2015, "Pretty Girls" was released for digital download, with anticipating fans trending the hashtag #PrettyGirls on Twitter.
Critical reception "Pretty Girls" received mixed to positive reviews from contemporary music critics and fans. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard gave the track a positive review, saying "pop and pop-rap fans are likely to swarm this slick slice of electro-hop, which pulls off the blonde-bombshell pairing by playing to each of its artists' strengths," adding that Spears "sounds more animated in her two minutes of action here than on the entirety of 2013's Britney Jean album," and praising The Invisible Men's production claiming it differs just enough from Azalea's previous singles having "bestowed her with another stylish banger." Jim Farber of the New York Daily News claimed the track "is a breezy, summer song that will get stuck in your head" but lacking "the snap, and the freshness" of "Fancy". Jesse Spero of Yahoo! Music called it "the song of the summer." Hardeep Phull of the New York Post criticized the song's similar production to "Fancy" and described it as "a woefully formulaic rehash." August Brown of the Los Angeles Times mentioned the "bubbly electro-trap beats, a lot of teen-sassy rapping and the two sharing lead singing vocals on the chorus," also commenting "your summer song sweepstakes bracket just got an early contender."
Lucas Villa of AXS remarked the "anthemic chorus about girl power in the party scene" and the "plucky production kicks" with a sound marrying '80s dance music like Debbie Deb's "Lookout Weekend" and recent hits "Fancy" and "Hollaback Girl," also complimenting Spears for finally giving fans "something more urban in the same vein of 2007's Blackout" and that both artists "make good on their promise to "bring the noise" on this attitude-packed club banger." Hugh McIntyre of Forbes referenced a polarizing reception of the track that was "already being heralded by some as a fantastic new direction for the singer, while others aren’t so sure." Abby Schreiber of Paper also observed the similar sound to "Fancy" interjecting with "No matter. The dance-pop, girl power jam has a catchy beat and some pretty great track art," while Ian David Monroe of V expressed the same thoughts, "And you won't hear any complaints from us. It’s been almost two long years since the world had a new Britney track, so we’ll take it." Sydney Gore of Nylon also heralded it as a "Fancy"-follow up as well as an "empowering song in some regard." Mike Wass of Idolator stated the "Bay Area hip hop-indebted club banger" is a "seemingly inevitable summer smash," and that "Britney serves Blackout-era attitude on the catchy chorus." Bradley Stern of PopCrush also gave the song a positive review, commenting "those trap-lite hi-hats and twinkly club beats are pure Hip-Hopney heaven" and "it’ll be a surefire contender for song of the Summer 2015". Time named "Pretty Girls" the third-worst song of 2015. Entertainment Weeklys Andrew Hampp named it the worst female collaboration of the time span 1988–2018.
Commercial performance "Pretty Girls" reached the top 20 in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Finland and the top 40 in the United States, France and Australia. In North America, the song debuted and peaked at number 29 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 with digital sales of 96,000, marking Spears' 22nd solo top 40 (24th top 40 overally) and 33rd career entry on the chart. It dropped out of the top 40 of the Hot 100 three weeks after its release and spent eight weeks on the chart. For the issue dated July 18, 2015, the single peaked at the apex of the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs Chart, becoming her ninth No. 1 and her first since 2011's "I Wanna Go". The single peaked at number 16 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.
In Europe, "Pretty Girls"'s strongest entry was seen in the United Kingdom, where it debuted at number 16 on the Official Singles Chart, becoming Spears' 30th top 20 entry in the country, but fell out of the chart only three weeks after entry. The track also debuted at number 64 on the Irish Singles Chart for May 7, 2015 although debuting at number 19 on the downloads chart, subsequently peaking at number 60 on the former.
In Oceania, "Pretty Girls" debuted at number 40 on the Australian Singles Chart issued for May 11, 2015, becoming Spears' 31st top 50 and 32nd top 100 entry, and later peaked at number 27. In a Twitter Q&A with fans in the following month, Azalea expressed her desire to have done additional promotion and television performances to support the song commercially.
Music video
Background
While being interviewed on March 29, 2015, at the 2nd iHeartRadio Music Awards, Azalea revealed she would be co-directing the music video for "Pretty Girls" along with Cameron Duddy, adding that Spears has contributed in the creative process as well. "I love her [Azalea's] work and I had an idea to do like a really girl power, fun Valley girl video," Spears claimed of the video partnership, adding that it was the first video she had done in a long time where she came up with the concept, also stating "there’s a lot of dancing. I got new choreographers to come in and kind of do hip-hop dancing, which I haven’t done in a really long time, so the feel of the video is really different and hi-energy."
On April 9, 2015, Spears and Azalea were shown filming scenes for the music video around the streets of Studio City, Los Angeles, after Spears shared lyrics of the track and a behind-the-scenes snapshot on her Twitter account. Spears shared a picture from the video shoot captioning it with lyrics of the song on her social media accounts. In the '80s-inspired visuals seen on the candid images, Spears wore a sexy leopard print top, ripped blue jeans, and pumps with matching sunglasses, triangle-shaped earrings, and pink lipstick, while Azalea was wearing matching denim jacket and shorts with crimped hair, while posing together in a bright red convertible Fox-Body Mustang and with Spears also driving around in a yellow Jeep CJ. Azalea then shared a selfie from the set on her Instagram account along with a hashtag of the song title. They were pictured again on the second day of production of the video shoot on April 10, 2015, with Spears wearing a same outfit from the day before but with a shorter hairstyle donning a voluminous curly bob, and Azalea changing into a sleeveless tie-dye ensemble. Spears choreographed a car wash scene with male backup dancers finishing a dance routine.