Baby Don't Hurt Me

"Baby Don't Hurt Me" is a modern reinterpretation of the classic 90s Eurodance anthem "What Is Love" by Haddaway. While the original song was steeped in the pain of unrequited love and the desperate search for its meaning, this 2023 version shifts the narrative. The song, featuring vocals from Anne-Marie and Coi Leray, explores a passionate, intense, and all-consuming relationship. The lyrics, co-written by a team including Ed Sheeran, delve into a love that is both exhilarating and potentially dangerous. Verses like, "I want you for the dirty and clean / When you're wakin' in your dreams / When you bite my tongue and make me scream," depict a raw and powerful physical and emotional connection. The line, "And you make me feel like it burns / And it hurts, uh / Maybe that's part of the rush / This is us," suggests an acceptance that pain can be an intrinsic part of a thrilling romance. However, the core of the song retains the original's vulnerable plea, repeatedly asking "What is love?" and begging, "Baby, don't hurt me no more." This creates a duality: the verses celebrate a fiery, confident love, while the chorus expresses a deep-seated fear of heartbreak, creating a narrative about wanting to fully embrace an intense love without being destroyed by it.

The song opens with a raw declaration of desire, wanting a partner through all aspects of life, both the messy and the pristine (“the dirty and clean”). The narrator speaks of a deep, almost subconscious connection, being present even in their partner's dreams. There's an admission of a painful pleasure in the relationship, a love so intense it feels like it burns. This feeling is described with visceral imagery like biting a tongue to the point of screaming. This burning sensation and the accompanying hurt are framed not as a negative, but as an integral part of the exhilarating rush of their connection. It's an acknowledgment that their unique bond (“This is us”) is defined by this high-stakes emotional and physical landscape.

The central, recurring question of the song is a direct and famous plea: “What is love?” This question isn't seeking a philosophical definition, but rather sets up the core request that follows: “Baby, don't hurt me no more.” It’s a vulnerable appeal for emotional safety within this whirlwind romance. The repetition of this line serves as the song's anchor, a moment of clarity amidst the chaotic passion described in the verses. It's the sound of someone who has been hurt before and is cautiously surrendering to a powerful new love, begging for it to be different this time.

A second voice enters, adding a layer of confident, almost swaggering energy. This perspective reinforces the all-encompassing nature of their bond, describing their private world as having its own rules (“what we do behind doors is our limits”). The imagery becomes more sensual and explicit, talking about physical intimacy with a sense of ownership and abandon (“I’m wet when I’m wet I’m like baby my beach and go swimming”). This section revels in the strength and limitlessness of their connection, yet it's tinged with a hint of awareness of potential pain. There’s a line acknowledging the possibility of future deception (“I know one day you go telling me lies and it’s killing me slowly”), which brings back the underlying theme of vulnerability. Despite this fear, the immediate focus is on the intoxicating present, a powerful physical and emotional current they are both caught in.

Ultimately, the track portrays a relationship that thrives on intensity. It’s a dynamic of push and pull, pleasure and a hint of pain, confidence and underlying vulnerability. The singers embrace the passion, the high-degree burn, and the thrilling rush. However, the foundational plea remains the same throughout—a desire to experience this profound connection without the ultimate heartbreak. It’s a modern reinterpretation of a classic sentiment, blending a celebration of an all-consuming, physically charged love with the timeless, human fear of getting hurt by the one they give themselves to completely.

"Baby Don't Hurt Me" was released on April 6, 2023, as a collaboration between French DJ David Guetta, British singer Anne-Marie, and American rapper Coi Leray. The track is built around a prominent interpolation of Haddaway's 1993 Eurodance hit "What Is Love". This followed a successful formula for Guetta, whose previous hit, "I'm Good (Blue)" with Bebe Rexha, also reimagined a 90s dance classic. The songwriting credits are extensive, notably including Ed Sheeran, alongside his regular collaborators Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac. Coi Leray, Akil "Worldwide Fresh" King, and Feli Ferraro also contributed to the writing. Production was handled by Guetta, Johnny Goldstein, Mike Hawkins, and Toby Green. Guetta first premiered the song during his set at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami on March 26, 2023, where he was joined on stage by Coi Leray. The collaboration was Anne-Marie's second with Guetta, following 2018's "Don't Leave Me Alone," but the first time either had worked with Coi Leray. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Dance Recording.

The song is built on a driving, four-on-the-floor dance rhythm, characteristic of the Eurodance and EDM genres, with a tempo around 128 BPM. This consistent, upbeat rhythm makes the track highly suitable for clubs and radio play, creating an energetic foundation. The rhyme scheme in Anne-Marie's verses is relatively simple, often using couplets (AABB) like "clean"/"scream" and "need"/"degree" (with some near rhymes) to create a straightforward, memorable lyrical flow that complements the pop melody. Coi Leray's rap verse introduces a more complex, multi-syllabic, and internal rhyme scheme ("I walk it, I talk it, I live it / ...our limits / ...giving me kisses"), which speeds up the lyrical pace and adds rhythmic variation. The interplay between the steady musical pulse and the shifting vocal rhythms—from melodic singing to faster rap—is a key part of the song's dynamic energy.

"Baby Don't Hurt Me" employs a successful formula of blending nostalgia with contemporary music trends. Musically, its primary technique is the prominent interpolation of Haddaway's "What Is Love," using its iconic synthesizer riff and melody to create instant recognition and a sense of "nostalgic euphoria." This is a technique Guetta also used on his hit "I'm Good (Blue)." The production is modern EDM/Dance-pop, characterized by a high BPM, stadium-sized drops, and crisp, clean vocal processing. The song's structure juxtaposes two distinct vocal styles: Anne-Marie's powerful, melodic pop singing in the verses and chorus, and Coi Leray's confident, rhythmic rap verse. This contrast adds dynamic texture to the track. Lyrically, the song uses direct, declarative statements ("I want you for the dirty and clean") and rhetorical questions ("What is love?") to convey its themes of intense desire and vulnerability. The repetition of the titular hook serves as a powerful pop anthem device, making the song incredibly catchy and memorable.

"Baby Don't Hurt Me" achieved significant commercial success, leveraging the nostalgia of its sample to become a global hit. It followed David Guetta's similar success with "I'm Good (Blue)," cementing a trend of reworking 90s dance anthems for contemporary audiences. The song performed well on charts worldwide, reaching the top 10 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and accumulating hundreds of millions of streams globally. It received massive radio support and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Dance Recording, marking the first nomination for both Anne-Marie and Coi Leray. The music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, further embedded the song in pop culture by paying homage to the 1998 film A Night at the Roxbury, which famously features the original Haddaway song. This reference, including the iconic head-bobbing motion, connected the track not just to the original song but to its lasting legacy in comedy and film.

The central metaphor in "Baby Don't Hurt Me" is the concept of love as a fire. The lyrics "We are burnin' at a high degree" and "you make me feel like it burns / And it hurts" explicitly frame the relationship's intensity as a source of both pleasure and pain. This fire symbolizes a passion that is all-consuming and potentially destructive, yet simultaneously thrilling and desirable ("Maybe that's part of the rush"). Another key element is the physical imagery used to represent emotional stakes, such as "When you bite my tongue and make me scream." This isn't just a literal description but a metaphor for a love that pushes boundaries to the edge, where pleasure and pain become intertwined. Coi Leray's verse uses the metaphor of swimming in deep water ("baby my beach and go swimming / let's go deep cuz you know there's no limits") to symbolize a complete and fearless immersion into the relationship, reinforcing the theme of boundless, high-stakes intimacy.

The most significant recurring motif is the direct sample and lyrical interpolation of Haddaway's "What Is Love?". The phrase "What is love? Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more" is the central hook and emotional core of the song. Its repetition throughout the track anchors the modern verses in a universally recognized sentiment of romantic vulnerability. This phrase acts as both a musical and lyrical motif, connecting the song to a rich history of dance music and a timeless emotional question. Another recurring lyrical idea is the imagery of burning and heat, as seen in phrases like "burnin' at a high degree" and "it burns and it hurts." This motif consistently reinforces the theme of a dangerously intense and passionate love. The word "us" is also used as a simple but powerful recurring statement, emphasizing the unique, self-contained world of the relationship.