Overview
"Hello Kitty" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne, taken from her self-titled fifth studio album, Avril Lavigne (2013). It was written by Lavigne, Chad Kroeger, David Hodges and Martin Johnson. Production was handled by Kroeger and Hodges, with additional production by Brandon Paddock and Kyle Moorman. Musically, "Hello Kitty" is a J-pop, dubstep, and EDM song, featuring an electro-influenced drop. The song was influenced by Lavigne's affinity to the Japanese brand Hello Kitty, and has some sexual content.
The song was released as a Japan-only fourth single. It was mostly panned by Western music critics, who criticized its sound and called it immature, while it was generally well-received in Japan. Lavigne shot a music video for the track in Japan which was released on April 21, 2014. Due to the video's popularity, the song charted at number 75 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the second highest charting single from the album.
Background
Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby (2011), Lavigne announced that work on her fifth studio album had already begun, having eight songs written. Lavigne stated that the album would musically be the opposite of Goodbye Lullaby, with a release date rumoured for sometime in 2012. Lavigne explained, "Goodbye Lullaby was more mellow, [but] the next one will be pop and more fun again. I already have a song that I know is going to be a single, I just need to re-record it!." In an interview, Lavigne said about her collaboration with Kroeger: "I have a song called Hello Kitty, which I wrote about Hello Kitty because I'm obsessed, and it's a really fun thing that I've never done before. It kind of has a kind of glitchy, electronic feel to it and it's... the only one on the record that sounds like that. It's really different and a lot of my friends I've played it for really like it. I'm having a lot of fun with that one."
Composition
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).