Bad Girls (M.I.A. song)

"Bad Girls"
Single by M.I.A.
from the album Vicki Leekx and Matangi
Released	31 January 2012
Studio	Hit Factory Criteria (Miami), Circle House (Miami)
Genre	Hip hop[1][2] pop[3]
Length	3:47
Label	Interscope
Songwriter(s)	Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam Nate "Danja" Hills Marcella Araica
Producer(s)	Danja
M.I.A. singles chronology
"Internet Connection" (2011) "Bad Girls" (2012) "Give Me All Your Luvin'" (2012)
Music video
"Bad Girls" on YouTube

"Bad Girls" is a song by British recording artist M.I.A. for her fourth studio album, Matangi (2013^[4]). The song is written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Marcella Araica and Floyd Nathaniel "Danja" Hills, and produced by Danja. The song, Arulpragasam's first release following her departure from the UK's XL Recordings in 2011, was self-released worldwide under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US on 31 January 2012. A shorter version of the song appeared on Vicki Leekx, a mixtape released for free online on 31 December 2010. "Bad Girls" was released as a digital download a day after its world premiere on radio and online.

The track is a midtempo hip-hop song with Middle Eastern influences and exhibiting elements of worldbeat, dancehall and syncopated drums in its instrumentation. Its lyrics revolve around sexual prowess and female empowerment, while its chorus features the refrain "Live fast die young, bad girls do it well" sung in a haughty rap-sung delivery. The song received positive reviews from contemporary critics, who lauded it as a highlight from the mixtape and commended its hook and lyrics on its final version as containing hallmarks of her previous songs including "Paper Planes" (2007) and "XXXO" (2010). In 2019, Pitchfork ranked "Bad Girls" as the 27th best song of the 2010s decade.

An accompanying music video for the song was shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco in solidarity with the women to drive movement, premiering on 3 February 2012. Directed by Romain Gavras, the video garnered universal acclaim and accolades. The song charted in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US, solely on downloads, and was distributed in physical format on 12 March 2012.