 On June 17, 2011, Jive Records announced through a press release that an exclusive 30-second teaser would premiere on June 19, 2011, on Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live and on VEVO simultaneously. The full length video was revealed to premiere on MTV and VEVO on June 22, 2011. Following the premiere, the video was played hourly on MTV, during video hours, and on VH1's Best Morning Buzz Live. Jen McDonnell of Dose said, "damn if [the video] doesn 't rock. [...] It all sounds very weird – and it is. But it's also buckets of fun." Megan Gibson of Time stated that the video is "random, weird and intended to be funny" and that despite the lack of dancing "Britney seems pleasantly energetic and spunky in 'I Wanna Go' which is a comforting change from her usual blank-eyed look." Sarah Anne Hughes of The Washington Post commented that the video "shows a much livelier Britney than the world has seen since the 'Toxic' years."
