"Hot Mess" is a song recorded by the American pop punk band Cobra Starship. It was the second single released from their third studio album, Hot Mess. The song was serviced to contemporary hit radio, before it was released digitally on October 30, 2009.
"Hot Mess" was announced as the album's second single on August 10, 2009, following the success of its lead single, "Good Girls Go Bad". The song was written by Gabe Saporta, Kara DioGuardi, Philip Lawrence, Peter "Bruno Mars" Hernandez, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Mike Caren, Oliver Goldstein, Ronnie Wood and Kevin Rudolf. It was produced by the band, Caren, Oligee and co-produced by Rudolf.
The music video for "Hot Mess" was released on November 9, 2009, via MTV and was directed by Kai Regan. It shows Saporta driving a walk-in van (with flashing lights, girls and people in sanitation clothing in the back) through New York City, working for an organization called the Cobra Crew. This organization takes people into the van, evidently to party. Saporta is then kicked out of the driver's seat and a girl starts driving the van, out-of-control at this point. The action transfers to a club, where most of the people from the van continue the party. The video ends with Saporta lying unconscious on the floor of the van, with "Hot Mess" scrawled on his chest in red make-up.
"Hot Mess" debuted at number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100. It re-entered the chart at number 88 in the week ending January 9, 2010, and remained on the chart for another four weeks.