The Ballad of Mona Lisa
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" (commonly referred to as simply "Mona Lisa") is a song by American rock band Panic! at the Disco, released February 1, 2011 as the first single from the group's third studio album, "Vices & Virtues" (2011). Vocalist Brendon Urie wrote the song to express personal struggles and convictions many years prior to its official production for "Vices & Virtues". The song impacted radio on February 15, 2011. The song has received positive critical reviews upon its release and reached number 89 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Background. "The Ballad of Mona  Lisa", written by lead singer Brendon Urie, was one of the first tracks composed for the band's third album, "Vices & Virtues". As a song written before the band even began recording their second album, "Pretty. Odd.", it proved to be an inspiration for the production of "Vices & Virtues". "A few of the ideas — like "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", specifically — was from an idea I had probably four years ago, before we even started touring on "Pretty. Odd.", and it was just sitting in my laptop collecting figurative dust on my hard drive, not really doing much," said Urie . "That ended up being a really good intro to the whole process." "I showed the band a couple times," said Urie, "but it just fell to the wayside, we never did anything with it. Other ideas beat it out or whatever reason it was.” He wrote the song dealing with his own personal convictions and struggles. "On the surface it can seem like just the story of drama between a guy and a girl," explains Urie. "But it's really about what I've been going through, an inner-struggle within myself, and fighting the dualities of my personality -- the  side that fucks everything up and destroys everything and the other side that tries to pick up the slack. It's all growing pains." The song was also inspired by Urie's move from Las Vegas, Nevada, where he's lived his entire life, to Santa Monica, California with Panic! drummer Spencer Smith. Urie notes that the move was "a "huge" part of growing up." Musically, the song is similar to those produced for the band's debut album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (2005); however, Urie explained in a 2011 interview that the song represented more of  a new beginning. Urie said "It was a new start when Spencer Smith and I started writing, so it was gonna end up sounding different, sonically." The music has been described as a combination of buzzsaw riffs, punchy percussion and literate, multi-layered lyrics. The song's title is an allusion to "Mona Lisa", the famous Renaissance-era oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting inspired Panic!, which pulls their style from the nostalgic romanticism of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras. In a 2011 interview, Urie regarded the name and theme of the song as neither male nor  female. “That whole thing with Mona Lisa was the idea that there is this character. For us, you look at the painting, and you can’t tell what this person is thinking. Not showing too much emotion, there’s this Mona Lisa smile masking what’s going on in that person’s head," he explained. "The song is about a battle in yourself […] an inner struggle in oneself. The duality in nature, where you see yourself as a bad person, and the good person trying to correct your bad habits. That’s what it was about. We thought that would  be an easy way to describe how we were masking our own emotions and trying to figure out how we can solve the bad choices we make." Release. The single was announced in the December 2010 issue of "Alternative Press". The track was originally titled "Mona Lisa", and was originally due for January 2011. On January 17, 2011, Fueled by Ramen posted a 30-second clip of the track on their Tumblr and YouTube accounts. On January 21, 2011, the song leaked in its entirety, and Panic! at the Disco released a lyric video on YouTube on January 24, 2011 . Shortly after its February 1 debut on the iTunes Store, the single shot to #1 on iTunes' "Top Alternative Songs" chart, and remained a top ten favorite for the weeks following. The music video has had an even greater success: the video debuted at #1 on iTunes' "Top Alternative Music Videos" ranking, having also recently entered into heavy rotation across the MTV Networks: MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV Hits, and Logo's "NewNowNext PopLab". The video received 120,000 streams on MTV.com within the week of its debut there and, as of April 3, 2022, has over 189.85 million views on Fueled  By Ramen's official YouTube Channel. In Australia, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" held the top position on iTunes' "Top Alternative Songs" chart for months following its release. The single's greatest charting success was in Australia where it reached #21 on the ARIA singles chart, spending eleven weeks on it. Critical reception. Stylistically, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" has been labeled as alternative rock, pop punk, pop rock, power pop, baroque pop,<ref>