Gaga’s back: but she can reclaim her pop crown?
IT’S NO EXAGGERATION to call Lady Gaga’s Chromatica the most anticipated pop album of 2020. After storming the charts in March with thumping disco-pop banger Stupid Love, last month she dropped
Rain On Me, a cathartic dance anthem with Ariana Grande. When Gaga sings, ‘I’d rather be dry but at least I’m alive,’ she explained in a recent radio interview, ‘It’s a metaphor for tears and for the amount of alcohol I was taking to numb myself.’ After years of struggles, with love and health, this new phase is a celebration of survival.
Chromatica – which features collaborations with K-pop girl group Blackpink and her old friend and mentor Elton John – is the singer’s first proper pop album since 2013’s patchy Artpop. After that record failed to match the massive success of her first two albums, 2008’s
The Fame and 2011’s Born This Way, Gaga appeared to press reset. She retired her most outlandish outfits – remember the meat dress? – and reinvented herself as a more serious singer-songwriter. She explored country, folk and rock sounds on 2016’s
Joanne – a deeply personal record named after her aunt who died of lupus – which paved the way for her brilliant, Oscarnominated performance in 2018’s A Star Is Born. Gaga was a revelation as Ally, an aspiring singer-songwriter who falls in love with Bradley Cooper’s alcoholic rocker. When she won an Oscar for co-writing their emotional duet, Shallow, it shut down any lingering suggestions her career might be a triumph of style over substance.
She could have swapped pop music for Hollywood, but it’s clear that her heart remains on the dance floor. ‘I want to put out a record that forces people to rejoice even in their saddest moments,’ she said of the album. She is proud of writing her own songs, but she’s admitted that ‘literally nobody cared who put their fingerprints on’ Chromatica as long as they made it stronger. Earlier this year, it was even reported that Tulisa Contostavlos had submitted songs for the album – something the N-dubz singer said she was ‘excited’ about on Loose Women – but sadly none of her offerings made the final tracklisting.
This period of resurgence comes at a time when Gaga, 34, also appears to be in a happy place personally, after she and Christian Carino decided to call off their engagement last year. In February, Gaga went Instagram official with a new boyfriend, 42-year-old tech entrepreneur Michael Polansky, posting a picture of them snuggling up on a boat. The romance made headlines from the beginning, thanks to a widely read piece in The New York Times by
Michael’s ex, Lindsay Crouse, titled ‘My ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend is Lady Gaga’.
‘Gaga adores Michael and has been spending quarantine with him in Malibu,’ a source tells Grazia. ‘He doesn’t crowd her. He’ll sit patiently with a book while she’s rehearsing or writing, and has a clear head on his shoulders. He is a breath of fresh air compared to some of her exes. It’s made her more relaxed and in touch with her emotions.’ Indeed, in April she described him as ‘the love of my life’ and also admitted she’s feeling broody. ‘I will say
I am very excited to have kids,’ she told Instyle. ‘I look forward to being a mom.’
Chromatica’s opening section of songs symbolises ‘the beginning of my journey to healing’, she says. She revealed in 2014 that she was raped aged 19 and developed PTSD, which in turn triggered fibromyalgia, a still-mysterious medical condition that causes extreme fatigue and chronic body pain. Her battle with the debilitating illness has forced her to cancel tour dates in the past, and was starkly documented in her 2017 Netflix film Gaga: Five Foot Two.
Somehow, she is powering through, using Epsom baths, heated blankets and regular medical appointments to tackle the symptoms. She has said that the condition is ‘getting better every day’, crediting a team of ‘fantastic doctors who take care of me and are getting me show-ready’.
It’s perhaps a sign of caution, though, that Gaga’s summer tour to promote Chromatica
comprises only six stadium shows across the US and Europe. These dates haven’t so far been postponed because of coronavirus – although it is expected to be only a matter of time before that happens – but Gaga recently shared her plans for immediately after lockdown. ‘I’m going to go to every gay club I can find,’ she said, ‘and hug and kiss every human I come in contact with.’