Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne song)

Background and composition

"Girlfriend" was written by Lavigne and Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, who also produced the song. "Girlfriend" is a moderately fast pop punk, and power pop song at 152 beats per minute, performed in the key of D major. Lavigne's vocal range spans from A3 to D5.

The song's chorus was recorded in seven different languages other than English – Japanese, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, German and Portuguese.

Critical reception

"Girlfriend" received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. The song was No. 35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. This song was also No. 77 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007. Also was listed as the number 1 hit of 2007 according to MTV Latin America. "Girlfriend" also won the Best Song of the Year at the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards. It beat "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Don't Matter", and "Beautiful Girls". Billboard ranked "Girlfriend" the twelfth best song of 2007.

Reviewers have noted similarities between Girlfriend and other songs. One similarity is to The Rubinoos' 1979 single "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", in which they sing "Hey hey, you you, I wanna be your boyfriend" similar to "Hey hey, you you, I could be your girlfriend" in "Girlfriend". Similarities have also been noted to Toni Basil's "Mickey".

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic highlighted the song as a 'track pick' in a review of the album, The Best Damn Thing. He complimented the album for opening with Girlfriend, describing the song as a "bright bubblegum blast". Focusing on Girlfriend in a review for The Best Damn Thing, Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly said "If the girls of Heathers formed a Runaways tribute band, it would sound exactly like this". Alex Macpherson of The Guardian newspaper labelled Girlfriend as "brilliantly addictive". Jon Pareles of The New York Times called Girlfriend the best song off the album and stated it used "cleverly manipulated echoes and attacks to sound as if Ms. Lavigne were charging in from all directions". Sal Cinquemani of Slant magazine was more negative on the song and states that Lavigne can't "pull off the pink pumps or punky pout with any kind of believability". Much Music praised the success of the song because of the mix of various genres "she can succeed in punk, rock and pop with her bubblegum anthem Girlfriend".

Chart performance

Because of digital download sales in excess of 122,000, the song debuted at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, the highest debut of her career. Afterwards it became Lavigne's first song to reach number one on the Hot 100, in the issue dated 5 May 2007; her previous highest peak on the chart was with 2002's "Complicated", which reached number two. It remained in the top ten for eighteen weeks. It became the last number one hit on that chart by a Canadian female artist until 2012's "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen. In Canada, the song debuted at number 1. As of September 2015, "Girlfriend" has sold 3.8 million copies in the United States.

In Japan, the song has been certified Million for more than 1,000,000 sales through ringtones and 3x Platinum for 750,000 sales. Thus, the song has sold more than 2,000,000 copies there making it the best-selling single by a Western Female Artist of All Time.

"Girlfriend" debuted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart at number three. The following week it reached number-one, and it remained at the top for six non-consecutive weeks, equalling Lavigne's previous number-one single on the ARIA Charts, "Complicated". After three weeks on the charts, it was certified gold by ARIA, then platinum after seven weeks for sales in excess of 70,000 copies. It was then certified double platinum, with sales in excess of 140,000. In 2008, it was certified quadruple platinum for sales of 280,000.

On the UK Singles Chart, "Girlfriend" peaked at number two, surpassing "Complicated" as Lavigne's highest peaking single on the chart. The song ended 2007 as the years 20th biggest-selling single in the UK and spent 28 weeks inside the chart and is Lavigne's biggest hit in the UK to date. It became the best selling song of 2007 worldwide with around 5 million copies outside the US.To date, "Girlfriend" has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

It won the Award for "Canción del Año" (Song of the Year) in "Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2007" (The Latin American MTV Awards) and was nominated for "Monster Single" in the MTV Video Music Awards 2007. It won Most Addictive Track (Single of the Year) at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Lawsuit

On 25 May 2007 Lavigne, Gottwald, RCA Records, and Apple Inc. were sued by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar (songwriters for The Rubinoos) over claims that "Girlfriend" infringed their copyright on their 1979 song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend".

Lavigne's manager, Terry McBride, denied that "Girlfriend" was copied from "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", and pointed out that "Boyfriend" itself is similar to The Rolling Stones' song "Get off of My Cloud". In addition, Avril Lavigne herself posted on MySpace that the Rubinoos' song had a similar title and vocal hook to the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", released in 1976.

McBride said he hired a musicologist to compare the songs. According to McBride, the musicologist reported that the songs were totally dissimilar, even a different meter. In July 2007, McBride said that Lavigne had no plans to settle the case, but would consider the costs of defending the case against those of settling. In January 2008, the lawsuit was settled, and Gangwer and Dunbar released a statement saying that the similarities between the songs were based on "certain common and widely used lyrics" and that they "completely exonerate Lavigne and Gottwald from any wrongdoing of any kind in connection with the claims made by us in our lawsuit."

Development

The music video was directed by The Malloys and filmed at Golf N' Stuff in Norwalk, California. They praised the video for "sounding different than most female artist at the time and for its very punk rock-pop feel, something she does better than anybody."

Concept

It features two girls: one with glasses and red hair (Lavigne), and one with a rebellious persona and black hair (also Lavigne). The video begins inside the building where the red-haired girl and her boyfriend are walking together. The black-haired girl sees her and shows her an intimidating disposition, to which the former ignores. As the couple walk away, the black-haired Lavigne begins to sing the song and tries her luck on the red-haired girl's boyfriend. Featured in the video are scenes of black-haired Lavigne fighting over the man with the red-haired Lavigne and trying to outdo her repeatedly. Between the scenes we see Lavigne, now with pink-streaked blonde hair, singing with her band accompanying her at the back. The video also featured this Lavigne and her friends dancing in a restroom.

After the starting scene, the video shows them at Li'l Indy, where they ride go-carts. Here, black-haired Lavigne is seen viciously bumping the car of the red-haired Lavigne, causing her to spin around and lose control. Next, the red-haired Lavigne and her boyfriend get inside a photo booth where black-haired Lavigne slips in and grabs the red-haired girl away before they take pictures. Black-haired Lavigne's friends then block the red-haired girl's way (by positioning themselves at the booth entrance) to give her more time.

The couple are now seen eating together, where black-haired Lavigne sees them yet again, throws the food away and kisses the red-haired girl's boyfriend, much to the latter's surprise and anger. It is nighttime when the couple decide to head over to a miniature golf course to while away some time playing, where the red-haired girl cheerfully wins.

Unfortunately for her, black-haired Lavigne and her friends happen to be present at the venue as well. As soon as she and her friends see them, black-haired Lavigne hits her in the head with a golf ball, resulting in the red-haired girl splashing down into the water. Her boyfriend tries to grab her hand but misses, to black-haired Lavigne's amusement. Finally, the man, who eventually develops feelings for black-haired Lavigne, is seen waiting for her. As she comes toward him, they soon hold hands together, but red-haired girl sees this and attempts to seize black-haired Lavigne. But black-haired Lavigne and the man manage to dodge her, and in her attempt to win back her boyfriend, she tumbles all the way down and lands in a portable toilet ahead, where she gives a look of desperation towards the camera, showing she has failed to do so, and signalling that black-haired Lavigne has finally won the man's affections. Blonde Lavigne then takes her new boyfriend into a bathroom stall and slightly opens the door after a moment and pumps her arm in victory.

Lavigne's boyfriend in the video is played by American model Bryan McMullin and dresses similarly to the "rocker" Lavigne in the video. The video features Lavigne's previous guitarist Evan Taubenfeld, and Lavigne's brother Matt on bass.

Reception

On 18 July 2008, "Girlfriend" became the most viewed video at that time on YouTube and in August of that year, surpassed 100 million views, becoming the only YouTube video available at that time to reach that milestone (although CSS's "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" had reached that milestone a couple months before, it has been removed from the website under accusations that the views had been frauded). The YouTube video of the song was accused of having an exaggerated number of views due to the use of a web link posted by AvrilBandAids, a fansite devoted to Lavigne. Clicking on the link would automatically reload the YouTube video of Girlfriend every fifteen seconds. Fans of Lavigne were encouraged to: "Keep this page open while you browse the internet, study for exams, or even sleep. For extra viewing power, open up two or more browser windows at this page!" However, the fansite later revealed that no "cheating" had taken place, and that the link had merely been a ruse to draw more attention to the video, thereby attracting additional views. It is expected that Lavigne's YouTube video views have earned in excess of US$2,000,000. In November 2009, RCA Records removed the video of the song from YouTube, by which time it had received around 130 million views. The video is now officially hosted on Vevo and Lavigne's Vevo channel on YouTube.

The song is featured on the soundtrack to the video game Burnout Dominator in four different languages which includes Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin and English. The song is also featured in Burnout Paradise which only includes the English Version.

The BBC Chart Show reported a sharp divide in reaction to the video. A criticism of the video was that it was damaging to Lavinge's claims to integrity by imitating younger girls' fashions and encouraging poaching of boyfriends from other girls.

Dr. Luke Remix

Lil Mama and Lavigne shot a video for the remix of "Girlfriend", which was directed by R. Malcolm Jones.

Live performances

Lavigne performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 15 June 2007.

Track listings and formats

1. "Girlfriend"
2. "Alone"

1. "Girlfriend" (Radio edit) – 3:38
2. "Girlfriend" (Instrumental) – 3:36

1. "Girlfriend" [Junkie XL Mix] - 3:41
2. "Girlfriend" [Junkie XL Extended Mix] - 5:44

1. "Girlfriend" (Dr. Luke remix, featuring Lil Mama) - 3:25
2. "Girlfriend" (album version) - 3:36
3. "Girlfriend" (original music video) - 3:48
4. "Girlfriend" (Dr. Luke remix, featuring Lil Mama) [music video] - 3:25

1. "Girlfriend" (Dr. Luke remix, featuring Lil Mama)
2. "Girlfriend" (Japanese version) [clean edit]
3. "Keep Holding On"
4. Ringtone¹

¹ A code was included on the CD to download the ringtone online.

Zebrahead version

In September 2009, American punk rock band Zebrahead released "Girlfriend" as the first single off their album Panty Raid, which was released on 4 November 2009 in Japan and 8 December in the rest of the world. It peaked in the Hot Modern Rock Tracks in the first week in the No. 84 position.

The music video of the song was released in 2009 and is a parody of the original "Girlfriend" video, with band members Ali playing the "Bad Avril" and Matty playing the good one.

Credits and personnel