Reviews for "Right Round" were mostly negative. A reviewer for
The New York Times called the song "[b]ionic and empty". In a review of
R.O.O.T.S., Ken Capobianco of
The Boston Globe stated, "His music is pure ear candy that must make Britney [Spears] envious, yet he wants to come off as a thug." He continued that it is unlikely that "Right Round" would have gone over well in
Brooklyn in the '80s, calling it "as hard as
Jell-O." Alex Fletcher of
Digital Spy stated in his review of the song, "It's pretty difficult to ruin a pop classic, but Flo Rida gives it a pretty good stab here." He added that "Right Round" is "[f]illed with more misogyny than a 1970s working men's club", and called it "an unpleasant affair that's only saved from the trashcan by its sample." Fletcher concluded, "The fuzzy synths,
electro beats and infectious chorus hook sung by Kesha are almost enough to fool the casual listener into enjoying themselves. But sadly it's never too long before Flo Rida turns up again to spoil things." Simon Vozick-Levinson of
Entertainment Weekly called the song "a horrendous rap remake of Dead or Alive's 'You Spin Me Round (Like a Record). Noting that the song was, at the time, the number-one single on the
Billboard Hot 100, he added, "What does all this say about us as a society? Mainly that we really, really enjoy cheesetastic '80s hair-pop hits in whatever form we can get 'em, I guess." There were also a few positive reviews. One such review came from Fraser McAlpine of
BBC, who opened, "It's one of the fundamental laws of pop, anything which tips a nod to 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)' by Dead Or Alive is going to be worth a listen." He continued, "Even though this is just a song written from the perspective of a randy man watching a pole-dancer and bragging about how much money he has [...] in a manner which would make
Akon blush, there's just something kind of cute about the whole thing." McAlpine attributed this to the song's "
Tigger-beat", explaining, "How can anything too sordid be going on when everyone is bouncing around like they're on
spacehoppers?" Bill Lamb of
About.com commented, "You will hear echoes of another pop classic, but the new song stands on its own feet." However, he noted that while pop music fans would appreciate it, hip hop listeners would likely dismiss it, and he added that "[i]t's not groundbreaking by any means". ==Commercial performance==