 Mike Joseph of "PopMatters" compared the song to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl", Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous", and the Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps".Joseph also said that the song is a mixture of Stefani's schoolgirl sass and "a bit of ambiguous sleaze".Upon its release, "London Bridge" received extremely mixed reviews from music critics.