The woman gains confidence, and towards the end of the song, she wants to spend her life with her lover despite the previous letdowns. "Broken-Hearted Girl" and "Ego" were initially planned for simultaneous release as singles in the United States, but "Broken-Hearted Girl" was replaced with "Sweet Dreams", which became the sixth single from the "I Am.. Sasha Fierce". "Ego" and "Sweet Dreams" are both on the "Sasha Fierce" disc, while the other joint-releases from "I Am.. Sasha Fierce" included one song from each disc to demonstrate the concept of Beyoncé's conflicting personalities—the album's central theme. "Broken-Hearted Girl" was subsequently released as the seventh overall single from "I Am.. Sasha Fierce" and the fifth outside the US. The ballad was made available in a two-track digital download in Australia and New Zealand on August 28, 2009. A CD single, featuring the album version of "Broken-Hearted Girl" and an extended remix of "Video Phone", was released in Germany on October 20, 2009. French electronic musician Alan Braxe produced a different version of "Broken-Hearted Girl" that was released in Europe. It is a bubblegum dance and disco remix with guitars, horns, synthesizers, whips, and snare drums. Braxe reworked the ballad's bridge and made changes to Beyoncé's vocals, such as increasing the speed of her singing. On October 30, 2009, a maxi single was released in Europe that features a radio edit and four remixes. Another maxi single was made available on November 2 in the United Kingdom by RCA Records. Digital extended plays later came out on November 20, 2009, in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. "Broken-Hearted Girl" received a mixed response from critics. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond of "The Village Voice" described the song as "romantic-comedy soundtrack fare", and Colin McGuire of "PopMatters" commented that the balladry is more similar to the work of Canadian pop singer Celine Dion than American soul singer Aretha Franklin. A writer for the "Eastern Daily Press" noted that it is a ballad in the vein of Beyoncé's 2008 single "If I Were a Boy" and that Dion would be proud of its "insipid [and] sentimental" balladry.