"Who's Laughing Now" is a song by American singer-songwriter Ava Max, released on July 30, 2020, through Atlantic Records as the second single from her debut studio album, Heaven & Hell (2020). The song was written by Max, Madison Love, MÃÂ¥ns Wredenberg, Noonie Bao, and producers Cirkut and Lotus IV. It is a dance-pop song with lyrics about a girl being gaslighted, and continues from Max's 2018 song "Sweet but Psycho". "Who's Laughing Now" reached number one in Poland, and charted in the top ten in eight countries. An accompanying music video was directed by Isaac Rentz and depicts Max seeking revenge on her boss and cheating boyfriend.
Max first teased "Who's Laughing Now" on her social media accounts on May 28, 2020, before officially announcing the single's initial June 2, 2020 release date, and cover art the next day. The release date was subsequently postponed because it coincided with Blackout Tuesday. She then announced that the song would be released on June 25, 2020, but was also indefinitely delayed on June 17, 2020. She eventually announced that it would be released on July 30, 2020. The cover art depicts a topless Max positioned in front of a flaming background. "Who's Laughing Now" was written by Max, Madison Love, MÃÂ¥ns Wredenberg, Noonie Bao, Cirkut and Lotus IV, with the latter two handling production.
"Who's Laughing Now" is a dance-pop song, which contains several minor chords. Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic compared the song's island groove to artists such as Clean Bandit and Ace of Base. It was written as a continuation from her 2018 song "Sweet but Psycho", as the lyrics both describe a misunderstood girl being gaslighted, and serve as an analogy to Max's own experiences being rejected in the music industry. She summarized the song as "basically telling everyone to just fuck off". Max stated that "Who's Laughing Now" is targeted towards females who had bullied her throughout middle school, causing her to start home-school. The song's title was envisioned after a self-discovery revelation by Max.
Writing for Us Weekly, Nicholas Hautman praised the chorus of "Who's Laughing Now", indicating that it had the catchiest "don't cha" since the Pussycat Dolls song "Don't Cha" (2005). However, Issy Sampson of The Guardian criticized the song for sounding similar to "Sweet but Psycho", which she described as an "irritating earworm". She added that the former used a "smug" horrible personality trait in place of "psychotic."
The music video was directed by Isaac Rentz and released on July 30, 2020. Max is depicted as a person seeking revenge after being fired by her boss and cheated on by her boyfriend. She is seen dancing in a destroyed office and breaking a car with a crowbar, before breaking free of a psychiatric hospital while strapped in a straitjacket. Max wrote the video's plot, which she decided to incorporate several female characters into a corporate workforce dominated by men. One character portrayed by Max is gaslighted by a doctor into becoming "psycho", while another had musical instruments appearing from her head, which was parallel to her own negative experiences with music executives. An interactive quiz was launched as a collaboration with Spotify prior to the release of Max's debut studio album Heaven & Hell (2020). It contains 10 questions asking about personality, resulting in the choice of one of four characters portrayed in the music video; Amanda, Torrence, Carmen, and Ava.
Digital download / streaming â The Remixes
Digital download / streaming â The Remixes
Streaming
Streaming
Credits adapted from Tidal.