Not My Fault

Album: Mean Girls (Music From The Motion Picture) (2023)
Charted: 61 102
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Songfacts®:

  • "Not My Fault" is a flirty disco-pop tune by Reneé Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion, recorded for the 2024 Mean Girls movie musical. In the film, Rapp plays Regina George, the vindictive Queen Bee of North Shore High School, a role she played in the Broadway production, which ran from 2019-2020.
  • Released on December 15, 2023 as the movie's lead single, "Not My Fault" serves as one of two exclusive songs composed specifically for the motion picture. It plays during the end credits and stands as the sole track not used as a musical number in the film.
  • The upbeat dance number touches on themes of empowerment, confidence, and a carefree attitude towards love and relationships. The song kicks off with a sample from the original Mean Girls movie, with Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) telling her friend, Janis Ian, "It's not my fault that you're, like, in love with me or something."

    Rapp then takes center stage singing confidently about her allure and the consequences of being irresistibly captivating.

    Megan Thee Stallion joins in, bringing her trademark swagger to the track as she asserts her confidence and playfully compares herself to NBA bad boy Allen Iverson and the Mean Girls' Queen Bee.
  • "Not My Fault" is a collaborative effort written by Reneé Rapp, Megan Thee Stallion, the original Broadway musical's lyricist Nell Benjamin, and composer Jeff Richmond, alongside pop producers Ryan Tedder and Alexander 23, and seasoned songwriters Billy Walsh and Jasper Harris.

    Alexander 23 was the producer for Rapp's 2023 debut album, Snow Angel.
  • The song came together remarkably fast. "I had one day off on tour while I was in LA, for the Oakland and then Los Angeles show, and honestly, I knew we needed an end credits [song]," Rapp told The Wrap. "And I really was just like, 'Damn, I have one day off, we might as well just try."

    She continued, "Because if we don't, then I'm not going to be able to think about anything the next month while I'm away, and I'll be stressed because I will have to do it on the road, and I'd like to be in like a studio that I feel good in. So we just went in one day, me and a couple of my friends who I work with a lot, and it was just the first song that happened. It came and it ended up being like the one that we love."
  • Rapp and Thee Stallion performed the song live for the first time on the January 21, 2024, episode of Saturday Night Live. Rachel McAdams, who played Regina George in the original Mean Girls film, introduced the performance.

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