| Circus | |
| Cover: | Circus by Lenny Kravitz.webp |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Lenny Kravitz |
| Album: | Circus |
| Released: | [1] |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 4:48 |
| Label: | Virgin |
| Producer: | Lenny Kravitz |
| Prev Title: | Rock and Roll Is Dead |
| Prev Year: | 1995 |
| Next Title: | Can't Get You Off My Mind |
| Next Year: | 1995 |
"Circus" is a song co-written and performed by American singer Lenny Kravitz and released on December 11, 1995 by Virgin Records, as the second single from his fourth studio album, Circus (1995). There were produced two music videos for the song: one directed by Ruven Afanador[2] [3] and the other by Martyn Atkins.[4] Kravitz explained to Billboard, "it gets more like a circus with all this suff—management people, fans, bankers, investment people. It's like, My God! What happened? It gets harder to be yourself."[5]
Steve Baltin from Cash Box described "Circus" as "a slow blues-based rocker with a killer chorus, a smoking guitar solo near the end and a great fade out. Despite all that, it’s not immediately obvious what radio formats will embrace this heavy single."[6] John Perry from NME commented, "Here's Lenny the Krav with another of his homages to the loon pant. Instead of his usual pillion ride on Jimi's big Chopper, this time the Kravster has opted to paint himself a rather weak shade of Blue Oyster Cult."[7] Mark Kemp of Rolling Stone stated, "In the title track of Lenny Kravitz's new album, the singer struggles with the dictates of reality that come to bear on fantasy. "Welcome to the real world", he sings to himself. But in the real world according to Kravitz, rock stars still flash diamond rings and coke spoons, and bumper-sticker platitudes like god is love still soften the blows of the real real world."[8]