Hot to Go!

In a press statement, Chappell Roan said of the song:

I wrote this song so I could live out my cheerleader fantasy! I just wanted to make something simple and silly that I could do with the audience because I'm a huge fan of audience participation. Also, selfishly (and shamelessly) wanted to bounce around on stage singing a song about being hot."[1]

The instrumental of the song consists of synthesizers,[2] while the lyrics find her teaching a dance to the song and telling her future lovers that she is ready and waiting to spend time with them.[3] She uses her own chant: "H-O-T-T-O-G-O / Snap 'n clap 'n and touch your toes".[2]

Stephen Daw of Billboard wrote Chappell Roan "offers up a great impression of a cheer captain" and described the song as "fun", "camp", and "exactly the kind of jam that will have you dancing along in no time."[3] Kaelen Bell of Exclaim! remarked:

"HOT TO GO!" should be annoying. On first listen, it kind of is — it's got that grating, self-aware hook (or, in this case, series of hooks) that could sound like KIDZ BOP in the wrong hands. Under the care of Chappell Roan's wild-eyed pop fanaticism however, that striving energy becomes something transcendent. All those hyper-saturated, cheerleader hooks pile atop one another like a collapsing human pyramid, a flurry of skirts and flushed cheeks and pom poms and glitter. It's the kind of so-dumb-its-genius singalong pop lyric — "H-O-T-T-O-G-O / You can take me hot to go!" — that you can't believe hasn't been done before, sung with in-the-red commitment by a songwriter with a clear understanding that the joy of pop music is in its full-blooded surrender to ecstasy and excess.[4]

The music video was directed by Jackie! Zhou, filmed in Chappell Roan's hometown in Missouri and released alongside the single. It features appearances from her grandparents[1] and shows her dressed in an array of glittery outfits.[2]