UPDATED: As rumored, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars will drop a new song titled “Die With a Smile” tonight (Thursday, Aug. 15) at midnight ET / 9 p.m. PT, Gaga announced on social media Thursday.
Little is known about the song at the moment, although the two appear to be dressed in country-leaning outfits in the artwork, which was released along with the announcement — if that’s the case, then the artists will be the latest of a battalion of pop artists to “go country” this year, led by Beyonce and Post Malone.
A rep tells Variety that the song is a stand-alone single.
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Gaga said in the press materials that accompanied the song, “I was finishing up my own album in Malibu and one night after a long day he asked me to come to his studio to hear something he was working on. It was around midnight when I got there and I was blown away when I heard what he had started making. We stayed up all night and finished writing and recording the song.” It seems safe to assume that Gaga’s seventh album will be released in the coming months.
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It seems likely that Grammy-winning songwriter-producer Andrew Watt — who came up as a pop producer but has leaned heavily into rock, producing the Rolling Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds” last year as well as projects with Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne and others — is involved as well: He also posted on social media about the Gaga/Bruno song on Thursday.
The song is the first new headlining music in years from both artists — Mars since his Grammy-winning Silk Sonic project with Anderson .Paak two years ago, and Gaga since her 2020 “Chromatica” album, although she made a show-stopping appearance with the Rolling Stones on “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” from “Hackney Diamonds” last year.
Gaga, of course, is starring in the upcoming comic book musical “Joker: Folie À Deux,” which features singing but is “unlike anything I’ve ever done before,” she said recently in an interview with Empire. The Grammy and Oscar winner stars opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the movie as Lee, a reimagining of Harley Quinn.
“People know me by my stage name, Lady Gaga, right? That’s me as that performer, but that is not what this movie is,” Gaga said. “I’m playing a character. So I worked a lot on the way that I sang to come from Lee, and to not come from me as a performer…How do you take music and have it just be an extension of the dialogue, as opposed to breaking into song for no conceivable reason?”
The new song with Mars seems to be completely unrelated to the film, although its title is certainly on-theme for the Joker.
