"Criminals" is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor from the deluxe edition of her sixth major-label studio album, Timeless (2024).

Trainor wrote it with songwriters Tyler Johnson and Josh Kear, and her brother Justin handled production.

Meghan Trainor began recording songs for her third major-label studio album, Treat Myself (2020), while still recovering from her second vocal cord surgery.

[4] She eventually rewrote Treat Myself four times to make it a pop record that feels relevant in an era when hip-hop reigns.

[5] Trainor returned to her doo-wop sound on her fifth major-label studio album, Takin' It Back (2022), after the song "Title" attained viral popularity on video-sharing service TikTok in 2021.

[9][10][11] Trainor continued the sound on her sixth major-label studio album, Timeless (2024), which was identified by critics as a doo-wop and bubblegum pop record.

[17][18] On October 24, 2024, an extended play containing Chromeo, Ellis, and J.Bird's remixes of the song was released alongside its live performance from the tour's Madison Square Garden stop.

Trainor handled vocal production, Randy Merrill mastered the song, and Jeremie Inhaber mixed it.

"[25] Many cast members objected to the dance sequence and even created a WhatsApp group to avoid doing it,[26][27] but they ended up enjoying it after the filming.

[28] Capital's Katie Louise Smith believed the song succeeded in fulfilling Bier's intention and stimulated viewers to think more about the perpetrator of the murder: "It worked out perfectly to set the tone of the entire show.

"[29] The inclusion of "Criminals" in The Perfect Couple caused its Spotify streams to increase by 1770% in the period between the show's release and the last week of September, prompting Trainor to add it to the set list of the Timeless Tour.