"Maniac" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Conan Gray Conan Lee Gray (born December 5, 1998) is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Lemon Grove, California and raised in Georgetown, Texas, he began uploading vlogs, covers and original songs to YouTube as a teenager. Gray signed a record ...

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

released it as the third

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from his debut studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Kid Krow ''Kid Krow'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Conan Gray. It was released on March 20, 2020, through Republic Records. The album is a " coming of age" record inspired by elements such as his rough childhood experiences of ...

'' on October 24, 2019. "Maniac" was written by Gray and

Dan Nigro Daniel Leonard Nigro (born May 14, 1982) is an American musician, songwriter, instrumentalist and record producer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band As Tall As Lions. Nigro has produced, written and co-written songs ...

, who also produced the song. The song has been certified Platinum in Australia, Brazil, Canada and the United States, becoming his first certifications in all four countries. In early 2020, the song was successful on international mainstream pop radio. It had gained 50 million accumulative

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

by January 2020, before clocking 90 million streams only two months later. The song also became trending on the video-sharing platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, debuting in the app's Top 25 trending chart.

Composition and lyrics

Gray wrote "Maniac" in the shower after receiving a sobbing text message from an ex-lover at midnight. The ex had supposedly been spreading rumors about how Gray was "some freak who wouldn't leave them alone" he continues, "when in reality, they were the freak." He referred to the song as "a cathartic post break-up song dedicated to psychotic exes." Madeline Roth of ''

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

'' described the song as "a total '80s fever dream, marked by shimmering synths and Gray's quirky lyrics about a fickle ex who leaves him simultaneously amused and hurt."

Music video

In the BRUME-directed music video for "Maniac", which sits at over 76 million views, Gray and English actress

Jessica Barden Jessica Amy Barden (born 21 July 1992) is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her role as Alyssa in the Channel 4 comedy-drama ''The End of the F***ing World'' (2017–2019). She received a British ...

are working the night shift at the theatre/cinema before they fend off her psychotic ex-boyfriends who have risen from the dead. Roth said that the "cinematic" music video pays homage to horror classics such as '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978) and ''

Zombieland ''Zombieland'' is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer in his theatrical debut and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film follows a geeky college student ( Jesse Eisenberg) making his wa ...

'' (2009).

Critical reception

Helen Ehrlich of ''Affinity Magazine'' described "Maniac" as "an eye roll and a smirk" that is "retro, raw and rage-filled." The song features "magnetizing pop synths, a stimulating dance-hall bass, and Gray's energizing vocals". Despite being officially released in October 2019, "Maniac" was included on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'''s mid-year list of The 50 Best Songs of 2020.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs Conan Gray songs Republic Records singles Songs written by Dan Nigro