Lady Gaga
Nov 17, 2013
"Do What U Want" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga featuring guest vocals from R. Kelly for Lady Gaga's third studio album, Artpop (2013); it appears as the seventh track on the album. The song was written by Lady Gaga, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, R. Kelly, Martin Bresso and William Grigahcine. A snippet of "Do What U Want" was first heard on a Best Buy/Beats commercial on October 17th. The track was made available early on the iTunes Store ahead of the full release of Artpop. "Do What U Want" was released as the album's second single on Amazon.com on October 21st.
"Do What U Want" was presented to Gaga by Blair around two years before. They developed and worked on the song until 2013, when it was finally added to the track-list of Artpop after adding Kelly's vocals. Musically the song is an R&B and synthpop track containing '80s throbbing synths and an electronic beat. Lyrically, the song is straightforward and finds Gaga telling off her detractors with the sentiment that her thoughts, dreams, and feelings are her own, no matter what one does with or says about her body.
Upon release, the song was met with positive reviews, with critics praising the simplicity of the song with its '80s-inspired production and the commercial appeal. Some compared Gaga's vocals to those of Tina Turner's and Christina Aguilera's. In the United Kingdom, "Do What U Want" was deemed ineligible to enter the The Official UK Singles Chart and will be unable to do so until Artpop is released. Gaga has performed an acoustic version of the song on the tenth series of The X Factor (UK).