First previewed in a Super Bowl LV commercial in February 2021, the song was released on March 26, 2021, through Columbia Records,[2] as the lead single and title track from his debut studio album, Montero (2021).

The "camp",[6] tongue-in-cheek, sexually-charged music video for the song depicts Lil Nas X in a number of ironic yet thought-provoking Christian-inspired scenes, including the artist riding a stripper pole to Hell, and giving a lap dance to Satan.

[7] However, with some people dismissing his success as a one-hit wonder, Lil Nas X wanted to depart from the country trap sound of "Old Town Road" when working on his debut album; instead, he focused on rap, pop, and R&B, influenced by Drake and Nicki Minaj.

[8] In early 2020, Lil Nas X asked the production duo to executively produce his debut album, and started recording ideas on his phone during COVID-19 lockdown.

[18] Lil Nas X later stated the film was one of the first queer movies he had ever seen that felt "very artsy" and made him interested in the concept of "calling somebody by your own name as lovers and trying to keep it between you two", inspiring him to write about it.

[20] Furthermore, in the May issue of GQ Style, he described the conflict between his sexuality and his Christian upbringing, notably his father's role as a gospel singer, calling the new song and video "rebellious" because they allowed him to express himself in a way he hadn't before.

[21] On the day of the single's release, Lil Nas X shared an open letter to his 14-year-old self on Twitter, reflecting on his choice to come out at an early age and his nervousness about the song.

[34] Like previous songs by production duo Take a Daytrip, "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" is in the Phrygian mode and was described as having a "Middle Eastern or Moorish or Spanish sound".

[36] Renting out an Airbnb at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to work on his debut album, Lil Nas X revealed that it was written about a man he met in mid-2020, who was partying and taking drugs while in quarantine.

[37] He features the line "shoot a child in yo' mouth while I'm ridin'", which was intended to help break the stigma around references to gay sexual practices in music.

[15][20] Lil Nas X revealed he was afraid of turning away straight fans with an explicit lyric about gay sex, but decided "if they feel offended, they were never really here for me.

[45] Another promotional tool was a collaboration with augmented reality mobile app Jadu, in which users can interact with a volumetric video-generated Lil Nas X wearing red angel wings.

[54][55] Tying into the music video's theme, Lil Nas X collaborated with art collective MSCHF Product Studio to create 666 individually numbered pairs of Nike Air Max 97 "Satan Shoes" adorned with pentagrams, inverted crosses, and the Bible verse Luke 10:18.

[65] The lawsuit was eventually settled, with MSCHF issuing a voluntary product recall and buying back any Satan Shoes at their original price.

The ancient Egypt-themed performance was a tribute to the visuals of "Remember the Time" by Michael Jackson and ended with the singer kissing a male backup dancer.

[75] Muino drew inspiration from Dante's Inferno and paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, including The Garden of Earthly Delights—a triptych depicting heavenly and hellish imagery and the Last Judgment.

[72] In an interview with Time, Lil Nas X revealed that inspiration for the video came from the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants and the film Call Me by Your Name.

[73][77] He further elaborated, "When someone who is commercially successful makes work that lives so similarly next to ours and profits from it on such a massive scale, then I felt like I had to speak up", but said he blamed record labels rather than Lil Nas X.

[78] Following a voice-over introduction where Lil Nas X discusses not having to hide in shame, the music video begins with the singer portraying both Adam and the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

[16][37] He makes his way over to Satan and proceeds to give him a lap dance wearing Calvin Klein underwear and thigh-high boots with stiletto heels.

[20][79] In addition to its biblical references and symbolism, the music video features a running theme of duality, including good vs. evil and masculinity vs.

[17][20] The scene in the Colosseum was seen as a reference to the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate,[83] while the judges' costumes were inspired by the all-denim outfits worn by Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in 2001.

[84] The video also drew comparisons with the character HIM from the animated series The Powerpuff Girls, for portraying the devil as a "queer-coded" entity or a "red, gay man", a trope that became prominent in cartoons from the 1990s.

[82] He also remarked that artists like Frank Ocean and Troye Sivan were bolder about their sexuality, but had never reached the same level of commercial success as Lil Nas X.

[79][88][89] Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem,[90] conservative pundit Candace Owens,[90] Kaitlin Bennett,[91] and evangelical pastor Mark Burns[92] all reacted negatively on Twitter, as did rapper Joyner Lucas[93] and athletes Nick Young[90] and Trevor Lawrence.

Neena Rouhani of Billboard depicted the social media outrage as his "greatest marketing tool", and Kevin Meenan, a music charts manager at YouTube, described it as "very explicit", and that controversy was his goal.

[99] Additionally, the music video and its reception were lampooned on a Saturday Night Live cold open, with Chris Redd as Lil Nas X discussing the controversy with Chloe Fineman as Britney Spears.