Obsessed (Olivia Rodrigo song)

"Obsessed" is a song by American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo from Guts (Spilled), the 2024 deluxe edition of her second studio album, Guts (2023). Rodrigo wrote it with Annie Clark and its producer, Dan Nigro. Geffen Records released it as a single alongside the deluxe edition on March 22, 2024. A rock, pop rock, and dance-rock song with punk rock and pop-punk influences, "Obsessed" details Rodrigo's jealousy and ruinous preoccupation with her partner's ex-girlfriend through a sapphic narrative.

Music critics were positive about "Obsessed" and directed praise towards its upbeat nature and the lyrics. In the United States, the song debuted at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached the top 20 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Obsessed" became Rodrigo's seventh song to reach the top 10 on the Pop Airplay chart and ninth on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.

Mitch Ryan directed the music video for "Obsessed", which depicts Rodrigo facing her partner's ex-girlfriends in a beauty pageant and performing the song in an adjoining room. She included it on the set list for her 2024 concert tour, the Guts World Tour, where she sang it while spinning around and played a guitar solo. These performances were well received, and the song attained viral popularity on video-sharing service TikTok.

Background and promotion
Olivia Rodrigo conceived her second studio album, Guts (2023), at the age of 19, while experiencing "lots of confusion, mistakes, awkwardness & good old fashioned teen angst". She worked exclusively with Dan Nigro, who produced every single track on it. They wrote over 100 songs, of which Rodrigo included the more rock-oriented tracks on the album because they drew a bigger reaction from her audiences during live shows. 12 of the 25 songs recorded made it onto the standard edition of Guts. Rodrigo recorded the song "Obsessed" in 2021, which she wrote with Nigro and Annie Clark, a mentor to her during the album's creation process. Two days before the album's release, Rodrigo uploaded a parody infomercial which teased the names of four additional tracks, including the song. They were each included as a hidden track on a different color variant of its vinyls, with "Obsessed" appearing on the black and red ones. Third Man Records released the four tracks on a limited-edition vinyl, titled Guts: The Secret Tracks, on November 24, 2023, to commemorate Record Store Day.

In 2024, "Obsessed" became the only hidden track to be included on the set list of Rodrigo's Guts World Tour, as part of a set of rock-oriented songs, alongside "Brutal" (2021), "All-American Bitch" (2023), "Good 4 U" (2021), and "Get Him Back!" (2023), which recalls 1990s rock artists like Alanis Morissette and Gwen Stefani according to Chicago Sun-Times's Selena Fragassi. She would perform the song while spinning around on the ground and being shot by a camera from below, before concluding with a guitar solo. It received a highly positive fan reaction, and the song attained viral popularity on video-sharing service TikTok; Toronto Stars Emilie Hanskamp described the performance as a highlight, and Rolling Stones Tomás Mier believed it was delivered "as if it were a single". In March 2024, Rodrigo's fan hotline began playing a snippet of "Obsessed", and it was subsequently announced as a single from the album's deluxe edition, Guts (Spilled) (2024). Geffen Records promoted the song to contemporary hit radio stations in the United States on March 22.

Composition
"Obsessed" is two minutes and 50 seconds long. Nigro produced the song and provided vocal production, and he handled engineering with Dave Schiffman and Ryan Linvill. He plays guitar, bass, synthesizer, and drum programming; St. Vincent plays guitar; and Garret Ray plays drums. Spike Stent mixed the song, and Randy Merrill mastered it.

"Obsessed" is a rock, pop rock, and dance-rock song with influences of punk rock and pop-punk. The song opens with Rodrigo harmonizing with herself: "Da da-da-da da-da-da", before yelling with increasing force. It later incorporates irate guitars, warped vocals, and "guitar shredding" and becomes more panicky during its chorus, according to Billboard Philippines's Gabriel Saulog. "Obsessed" was compared to the work of Avril Lavigne by Aadya Dusad of the South China Morning Post.

The lyrics of "Obsessed" are about Rodrigo's jealousy and ruinous preoccupation with her partner's ex-girlfriend. The theme is explored through a sapphic narrative, similarly to the track "Lacy" from the album's standard edition. "Obsessed" is also about insecurity, channeling the negative inner voice in teenagers' minds and their persistent obsessive and envious thoughts. Rodrigo admits to spending unusual amounts of time thinking about and looking at pictures of the partner's ex, and researching personal details like her star sign and blood type. In the chorus, she wonders if the ex had slept in the partner's bed and warns him to be careful because she recalls everything he has told Rodrigo about her. In the bridge, Rodrigo asks him questions about the ex's sexual performance and behavior, and if she was "well-traveled? well-read".

Critical reception
Critical reviews for "Obsessed" were generally positive. Variety's Chris Willman believed that all four songs included on Guts: The Secret Tracks were "B+ tracks at worst" and would have been deserving of a placement on the main edition of Guts even if one were being conservative. He and the Official Charts Company's George Griffiths described "Obsessed" as a "banger"; Willman thought it fit with the more upbeat songs on the album, and the latter added that it is "a banger of dizzying proportions, by the way, Katy Perry's 'I Kissed A Girl' by way of Charli XCX's Sucker era".

Nylon's Steffanee Wang believed "Obsessed" was the "edgiest" Rodrigo had ever sounded and she should take the same direction in her future material. Dusad praised the song's production as well as the lyrics. She thought it expertly captures one's painful insecurity about their partner's past relationships, and would be relatable to teenagers who are insecure about the topic as well as enjoyable at karaoke bars. Dusad picked two of the most memorable lyrics: "I'm staring at her like I wanna get hurt" and "I'm so obsessed with your ex."

Commercial performance
"Obsessed" debuted at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 issued for April 6, 2024. The song became Rodrigo's seventh to reach the top 10 of the Pop Airplay chart, at number 10. It was her ninth to achieve the same milestone on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, at number 2. In Canada, "Obsessed" entered at number 20 on the Canadian Hot 100 issued for the same date. The song debuted at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart and became Rodrigo's eighth top 10 single.

In Australia, "Obsessed" entered at number 16. The song charted at number 26 in New Zealand. It debuted at number 17 on the Billboard Global 200. Elsewhere, "Obsessed" reached number 12 in Ireland, number 20 on the Japan Hot Overseas chart, number 43 in Greece, number 54 in Portugal, number 59 in Sweden, number 73 in Austria and the Netherlands, and number 92 in Poland.

Music video
Mitch Ryan directed the music video for "Obsessed". On March 20, 2024, Rodrigo uploaded a teaser of it, in which she proceeds into a hall full of her partner's exes in white dresses. Each woman dons a patch bearing different superlatives like "Miss Still His 'Closest Friend'", "Miss 2 Summers Ago", and "Miss Mom's Favorite", while Rodrigo's reads: "Miss Right Now". The hairstylist Clayton Hawkins styled Rodrigo's hair into rough pixie cut bangs, with gentle flowing Bohemian waves reminiscent of the 1970s and two long braids. Her outfit was a gothic and bare-shouldered black prom dress with an overlay and Steve Madden's Lotti Mary Jane loafers and socks. The video was released two days later.

In the video, Rodrigo enters a hotel ballroom and encounters the partner's exes, one of whom blows smoke towards her. The women compete in a beauty pageant titled "Exes Gala", which turns into an award show where Rodrigo presents them trophies bearing titles like "The Life of Every Fucking Party,", "Good with Kids", and "She Even Speaks Kindly About Me". She gives a deadpan facial expression during most of the video, which Saulog believed represents her envy towards the exes. In other scenes, Rodrigo performs the song in an adjoining room with a tuxedo-clad band and sings the bridge while encircled by some of the exes. It concludes with her cleaning up the venue after everyone else has left. Saulog thought the events in the video represent the chaos in Rodrigo's mind: "[an] almost rage-filled party in her head". Mier described the video as a "fever dream", and Rania Aniftos of Billboard believed the concept flawlessly complements its lyrics about envy.

Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Guts (Spilled).
 * Dan Nigro – producer, songwriter, engineer, guitar, vocal producer, bass, synthesizer, drum programming, background vocals
 * Olivia Rodrigo – vocals, background vocals, songwriter
 * St. Vincent – songwriter, guitar, background vocals
 * Garret Ray – drums
 * Dave Schiffman – engineer
 * Ryan Linvill – engineer
 * Chappell Roan – background vocals
 * Randy Merrill – mastering
 * Spike Stent – mixing