Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) performs the song after standing in for her sister, which leads to her acceptance into Hollywood Arts High School.

"[12] William Ruhlmann for AllMusic wrote that the track has "relentless beats, synthesized instrumentations, nonstop simple, repetitive choruses, and Auto-Tune vocals".

Brenton Blanchet, writing for Billboard magazine, described "Make It Shine" as an "ever-catchy theme performance".

[13] Writing for The Post-Standard, Mark Bialczak described the theme song as Justice's "first hit single".

[15] Bob Hoose and Steven Isaac for Plugged In stated that while the track was not "crass or violent or sexual", they opined the lyrics in "Make It Shine" were "not the best message for kids".

[22][23] In 2022, fellow Victorious actor Matt Bennett performed the song live during some of his DJ concert sets.