"Bad Love" is a song recorded by South Korean singer

Key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

serving as the second single for his 2021 extended play of the same name. It was released on September 27, 2021, through

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies where it was established in 1995 by record executive and record producer Lee Soo-man. The company ha ...

as the album's lead single. The song was written by Kenzie, who also handled the composition and arrangement with Adrian McKinnon.

Background and release

On September 6, 2021, SM Entertainment announced the upcoming release date of Key's first Korean-language

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

, '' Bad Love'', led by the single of the same name. The first single from the EP, " Hate That...", had already been released a month prior. Key showcased the song for the first time at his

Beyond Live Beyond Live (commonly stylized as Beyond LIVE) is an online live concert streaming service and concert series first established in April 2020 by South Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment in partnership with Naver. It is the first paid ...

concert, Groks in the Keyland, on September 26, 2021, before releasing it alongside the album on the next day. Two music video teasers were released on September 25 and September 26, respectively. The song together with the music video were released on September 27.

Composition

"Bad Love" was written by Kenzie. Musically, the song is described as a

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

song that creates a retro mood with a strong

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

sound and a lively beat. The lyrics revolve around "a tale of ecstatic love turned toxic".

Critical reception

Accolades

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes for ''Bad Love''. Studio * SM Big Shot Studio –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

* SM Yellow Tail Studio – engineering for mix * SM Starlight Studio -

digital editing Digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital ...

Personnel *

– vocals, background vocals * Junny - background vocals * Kenzie – vocal directing, lyrics, composition, arrangement * Adrian McKinnon – composition * Lee Min-gyu – recording * Jung Yu-ra - digital editing * No Min-ji – engineering for mix * Nam Koong-jin - mixing

Charts

Release history

References

{{Key (entertainer) 2021 songs 2021 singles Korean-language songs SM Entertainment singles Songs written by Kenzie (songwriter) Key (entertainer) songs