The track was officially released on February 28, 2020, as the lead single from Gaga's sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020), after being leaked in January 2020.

"Stupid Love" was also featured in a lip sync video, promoting Gaga's Haus Laboratories eyeshadow palette named after the track.

Gaga performed "Stupid Love" at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, The Chromatica Ball concert tour (2022), and the 2023 dates of her Jazz & Piano residency.

While none of those songs made the soundtrack, working together on "Stupid Love" was fruitful and convinced BloodPop into committing to co-produce the singer's entire album.

Gaga admitted she was at first hesitant to work with Martin, as she likes to write and produce on her own terms, but "decided to stop being an asshole" and meet him.

"[4] "Stupid Love" has been described as a return to the dance-pop,[5][6][7] electropop[8][6][9][10] and house[11] sound of Gaga's earlier career, with influences of dance,[12] disco,[13][14] and electronic.

[17] The Daily Beast's Kevin Fallon opined that in contrast with the rest of Chromatica, the track "almost entirely rejects a search for deep meaning.

"[18] Explaining the song's background, Gaga further elaborated: "...When we all decide to be vulnerable [...] it's very scary for a lot of people and there's all kinds of laws and constructs and things that have built all around us...

[21] Gaga responded to the leak by tweeting "can y'all stop" with a stock photo of a young girl wearing a balaclava while listening to music on a cassette player.

[22][23][24] Gaga did not perform "Stupid Love" during her AT&T TV Super Saturday Night pre-Super Bowl LIV show in Miami, despite requests from audience members.

"[16] The announcement of the single was accompanied with a photograph of a billboard in Los Angeles that had the song's title "splashed across an image of bright pink lips.

[27][28] Chromatica is written twice on the billboard: once vertically adjacent to the music video stills, and again as the last line of the copyright message in the lower left corner.

[32] On May 18, 2020, a lip sync video was released for the song, promoting Gaga's Haus Laboratories eyeshadow palette named after "Stupid Love".

Following the leak, W magazine's Kyle Munzenrieder wrote, "It was classic Gaga with a chugging power chorus, and a big room backing track.

"[34] Commenting on the leak, Harper's Bazaar described "Stupid Love" as an "upbeat cut with big vocals and dance and electronic-inspired production", seemingly "poised to be another radio hit from the singer".

[13] Upon the song's official release, Michael Cuby of Nylon described it as a "mix between 'Bad Kids' and 'The Edge of Glory' with a beat that instantly recalls the joyous electropop of 'Do What U Want'"[10] and "the type of song you can easily imagine both blasting out of an expensive sound-system at your local gay club and out of a car speaker as it speeds down the highway with its top down in the summertime.

"[10] Jamieson Cox for Pitchfork also compared the song to "Do What U Want", saying the "brawny, shiny disco" of "Stupid Love" sounds like a sped-up version of the former.

"[36] Writing for Rolling Stone, Claire Shaffer and Althea Legaspi described the song as a "dance jam",[12] while Ben Kaye of Consequence named it an "electronic disco banger".

"[38] Kornhaber added that even though the Max Martin production "feels perfectly calibrated for catchiness, Gaga's voice is so big and personable that a sense of humanity remains intact"[38] and concluded "Stupid Love" is "light, sweet, and orderly.

"[38] Stephen Daw from Billboard thought that the song "offers spine-tingling pop euphoria"[39] and highlighted the "unbridled joy in Gaga's voice".

[39] For Slant Magazine, Alexa Camp was more critical of the track, describing it as a "catchy but uninventive slice of electro-pop" and compared its bassline to "Do What U Want".

"Stupid Love" was just shy of 1,200 chart sales behind the number one spot, occupied by The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" after two days of downloads and streams.

[64] It is represented with separate groups of dancers, each forming a unique tribe with a corresponding color and logo – according to the singer, they are the "Kindness Punks" in pink, the "Freedom Fighters" in blue, the "Junkyard Scavengers" in black, the "Government Officials" in red, the "Eco Warriors" in green, and the "Cyber Kids" in yellow.

British Vogue thought Gaga looked like a "Y2K-inspired desert warrior" in the music video and called the singer's aesthetics a return to her "meat-dress-era form".

[78] For Gaga's third remix album, Dawn of Chromatica (2021), "Stupid Love" received a "splashy reimagining" from French producer Coucou Chloe, which "strips away the lead single's bubblegum beats to reveal a macabre midnight romp".

[79][80] In his review of Dawn of Chromatica, Robin Murray from Clash called Coucou's "Stupid Love" remix, along with Lsdxoxo's take on "Alice", "dancefloor bumpers".

[81] Writing for Gigwise, Alex Rigotti compared the remix unfavorably to Coucou's previous "dark, freaky" productions, thinking this time she was "way more conventional".

[83] On August 30, 2020, Gaga performed "Stupid Love" as the final number of a medley of songs from Chromatica at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.

[84][86] Billboard highlighted the performance of "Stupid Love" as "a surprising standout", where Gaga showcased her "raw vocals" while playing the piano, before turning the song "into the dance-ready ball that Chromatica is all about.

"[87] In 2022, the singer performed an extended version of "Stupid Love" at The Chromatica Ball stadium tour, where it was part of the finale to the show.