“Bad to You” by Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Normani
In “Bad to You”, the singers reveal that they are indeed “bad to” the addressee, i.e. their romantic interest. That basically means that they have a tendency to mistreat their boyfriends. But there is a specific reason why they are doing so. And that is they have come to the realization that treating him so brings out the best in him. In other words, the implication is that under normal circumstances dude is slouching.
So the ladies tend to mix the good treatment with the bad, just to keep him on edge. But with the right bit of motivation – for instance some good old-fashioned snubbing – he comes back to his senses and realizes he has to perform continuously, specifically for the purpose of pleasing his lady.
And conclusively, the general idea this song is based on is the singers marveling that it takes such manhandling, i.e. “bad” behavior, in order to convince their men to rather treat them “good”.
Facts about “Bad to You”
This song is a feature on “Charlie’s Angels (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”. The label behind the album is Republic Records. Also Ariana Grande herself is on quite a few of the songs featured, being the executive producer of the project.
This is the first time Normani has collaborated with either Ariana Grande or Nicki Minaj in the performing capacity. However, Ariana, along with three of the other co-writers of “Bad to You” (Ilya, M. Martin and S. Kotecha), also co-wrote Normani’s 2019 track “Motivation”.
The other co-writers of “Bad to You” are Normani herself in addition to the following:
- Brandon Hollemon
- Nicki Minaj
- Danny B. Styles
And Danny B. Styles, partnered with Ilya and M. Martin, also produced the track.
Meanwhile Minaj and Ariana have teamed up numerous times in the past, dating back to Nicki’s 2014 track “Bang Bang”.
Grande originally recorded “Bad to You” with British songstress Dua Lipa. However, that version didn’t get dropped due to the scheduling of the song’s release coinciding with a single Dua was concurrently dropping as a soloist. And that track would have logically been “Don’t Start Now”, which Lipa released in late November 2019.
