“Die with a Smile” by Lady Gaga ft. Bruno Mars, Saturday, October 5, 2024

At this point, we can’t really say what we can expect from Lady Gaga besides good music. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has given us almost every major musical genre from Dance music to Country Western. Gaga is gearing up for her seventh studio album to be released next year. The count in the singer’s discography, however, is confusing with two collaborative albums with the late crooner Tony Bennett and the soundtrack of A Star Is Born and now Joker: Folie à Deux causing an album inspired by the film Harlequin. After several years busy with acting and touring Chromatica, Lady Gaga is almost ready to unveil her latest era, which she says will be nothing like her signature dance-pop.

I JUST WOKE UP FROM A DREAM. Collaboration is key for Lady Gaga. Her debut hit featured singer Colby O'Donis. The lead single from her release of The Fame, The Fame Monster, “Telephone” featured Beyoncé. Having collaborated with everyone from Marilyn Manson to The Rolling Stones, there are few shocking collaborations that Gaga could reveal. Sometimes, though, a collaboration feels so appropriate that listeners wonder why it hasn’t happened yet. That’s the case for the single that Lady Gaga released on August 16 with Bruno Mars, “Die with a Smile.” The two artists have massive followings and even rose to popularity around the same time. Like Gaga, Mars’ career is also defined by a diversity of genres from R&B, Motown, soul, funk, hip-hop, and rock. “Die with a Smile” is a beautiful song that evokes a ‘70s musical template. This is reinforced in the music video featuring Mars dressed as a cowboy playing a sunburst Silvertone guitar and Lady Gaga playing a keyboard with a ‘70s version of a beehive hairdo. The video looks like a ‘70s American Bandstand or The Merv Griffen show set--due to the velvet clothes and the blue and red color pallet--where Mars and Gaga are the musical guests accompanied by band members playing in the background. 

IF THE WORLD WAS ENDING… “Die with a Smile” may be the next sound of Lady Gaga. It seems to be a standalone single recorded as she was finishing recording her upcoming album. Bruno Mars who was also working on new music invited Gaga to his studio to record a song he had been working on. The song has been compared to Gaga’s 2018 hit from A Star Is Born, “Shallow” and the collaborative work that Bruno Mars did with Anderson .Paak in their group Silk Sonic. The song’s video seems to take inspiration from the Porter Wagoner Show, particularly from 1967 to 1973 when Dolly Parton was a cast member of the show. Parton often collaborated with Porter Wagoner and netizens have pointed out the similarity between Gaga and Parton and Wagoner and Mars. The lyrics of “Die with a Smile” compare a breakup to death and the apocalypse. The speakers represented by Mars and Gaga resolve to stay together even until the end of the world. The lyrics match beautifully with the lyrics and it feels like a straight-forward love song. However, the music video evokes another time and the lyrics evoke an almost nihilistic dread, especially given the modern backdrop of climate change and the threat of a world war starting in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe. “Die with a Smile” is a song for us commoners who have little sway on the needle’s movement. At least we can try to cling to love. At least we can die happy. 

Read the lyrics on Genius.