“I Got a Boy” is a song recorded by South Korean girl group Girls’ Generation for their fourth Korean-language studio album of the same name. It was released on January 1, 2013 by S.M. Entertainment and KT Music. “I Got a Boy” was a success domestically, debuting at top of the Gaon Digital Chart and has sold over 1.3 million digital copies in South Korea in 2013. The single peaked at number 98 on the Japan Hot 100 and number 3 on the US World Digital Songs. A music video for the song was filmed in October 2012. It features hip hop-inspired dance moves choreographed by Nappytabs. It won the award for Video of the Year at the first YouTube Music Awards in 2013, which generated much attention for beating other popular nominees like Justin Bieber and Psy despite the fact that the group was considered lesser-known to the Western audience at the time. “I Got a Boy” was a success in the group’s home country South Korea. It debuted atop the South Korean Gaon Singles Chart on the week commencing December 30, 2013, selling 319,824 copies within its first week of release.The following week, the single dropped to number 4, selling 242,803 copies. The single sold over 1.35 million copies in South Korea in 2013, becoming the 13th best-selling single of the year in the country. On the Korea K-Pop Hot 100, “I Got a Boy” debuted at number 36 on the week of January 12, 2013. The following week, the single charted at number one on the chart and remained its peak for a further week.The song was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2013 Mnet Asian Music Awards. It was a success on South Korea’s music programs, achieving the top spot on M Countdown (three consecutive weeks), and Music Bank (three consecutive weeks). Internationally, “I Got a Boy” received generally positive reviews from music critics. The Los Angeles Times’ music critic Randall Roberts called it a “scattered anthem” and a “gleefully chaotic” song that could “indicate pop music’s future trajectory.” Billboard K-Town columnist Jeff Benjamin praised the song as “one of the most-forward thinking lead pop singles heard in any country” for its intense mix of different sounds and melodies, and commended Girls’ Generation for “the bar truly high for pop in 2013.” Staff writers of Entertainment Weekly picked “I Got a Boy” as Girls’ Generation “key track” and recommended the group as one of the fifteen “artists to watch” in 2013.Rolling Stone’s contributor Nick Catucci described the song as a “musical gymnastics routine.” Upon reviewing I Got a Boy album for AllMusic, David Jefferies named “I Got a Boy” a highlight on the album. Time named “I Got a Boy” the 5th best song on their Top 10 Songs of the Year list, calling it a “pop phenomenon” that rivals the likes of One Direction and Katy Perry. In August 2014, Pitchfork Media’s Jakob Dorof listed the song as part of his 20 Essential K-Pop Songs Lists, writing that “I Got a Boy” helped “prove the adventurousness of K-pop’s listenership,” and believed it was “perhaps the most structurally variable mega-hit since ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.””I Got a Boy” became the fourth best-selling K-pop single in the United States in 2013, behind Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and “Gentleman” and Big Bang’s “Fantastic Baby”.The music video for “I Got a Boy” won the award for Video of the Year at the first YouTube Music Awards, held on November 3, 2013 at Pier 36 in New York City. Following the event, Girls’ Generation received a considerable amount of negative feedback from Western audience as the group was not well known in the United States compared to other nominees for the same category including Psy, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.As a result of the controversial event, the music video gained 86,000 views on the awards day, up from 25,000 the day before. The following five days, it achieved an increase of 327% in viewership. Billboard named the song #21 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time, and later named the song as one of the 100 songs that defined the 2010s.and also as their fifth best K-Pop song of the 2010s.

The song was co-written and produced by Dsign Music.