In this article, we study the following weighted problem \(\Delta (w(x)|\Delta u|^{\frac{N}{2}-2} \Delta u) =|u|^{q-2}u +\ f(x,u) \quad \text{ in } \quad B, \quad u=\frac{\partial u}{\partial n}=0 \quad \text{ on } \quad \partial B,\) where B is the unit ball in \(\mathbb {R}^{N}\) and w(x) is a singular weight of logarithm type. The non-linearity is a combination of a reaction source f(x, u) which is critical in view of exponential inequality of Adams’ type and a polynomial function. Using the Nehari manifold method, the quantitative deformation lemma and results from degree theory, we establish the existence of a ground-state solution.