By Steven J. Horowitz
Senior Music Writer
Shortly after unexpectedly releasing her latest album “Harlequin,” Lady Gaga is getting back into, well, Gaga mode with the announcement of her upcoming seventh album’s first single, “Disease,” out Oct. 25.
Gaga revealed the single’s upcoming release after her parent label Universal Music posted pre-saves for “Disease” on a pop-up site last night, linking to Spotify and Apple Music. Fans surmised earlier this week that the song may in fact be titled “Disease” after noticing that the capitalization of letters for some of her songs on streaming had changed from upper to lower and vice versa, and when rearranged, the first letters of seven songs spelled “Disease.”
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Just a few hours before Universal’s pop-up site gained traction, Gaga published a playlist on her Spotify account, arranging the songs above in the order that spelled out “Gaga Disease.” Fans who went to gagadisease.com were led to a series of websites that appeared to reveal some of the song’s lyrics.
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Gaga herself had previously hinted at an October release date for the first single off her seventh album. In September, she posted an itinerary that noted “XX October: LG7 first single,” alongside notable dates on her “Joker: Folie à Deux” press run.
The singer is fresh off starring in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which was critically panned and underperformed at the box office. Though studio sources said the film would break even, it could potentially lose $150 to $200 million after bombing on the big screen.
Just prior to the film’s release, Gaga surprise-released a new album “Harlequin,” inspired by her character in the film. The project consisted of nearly all classic American Songbook favorites like “Get Happy,” “That’s Life” and “That’s Entertainment,” with the exception of a pair of originals. It called back to the two albums she did with the late Tony Bennett, the Grammy-nominated “Cheek to Cheek” and “Love for Sale.” The album became her lowest debut with a full-length album on the Billboard 200, where it bowed at No. 20.
Though the album didn’t connect far and wide, Gaga is riding high off the success of “Die With a Smile,” her duet with Bruno Mars that came out in August. That song has been a commercial bright spot for Gaga, debuting at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and getting hundreds of millions of streams.
Gaga last released a true-to-form studio album in 2020, when “Chromatica” arrived amid the start of the pandemic. That effort was a resounding success for the singer, debuting at No. 1 on the charts and spawning the Hot 100 topper “Rain on Me” featuring Ariana Grande.
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