00:00To me, if you can repeat your fingerprints, they're your fingerprints.
00:03I don't want to drive anyone insane, but also thank you so much.
00:07So, like, I tried to have a lot of fun making this record.
00:16I always embark on a very, like, organic musical process.
00:20And the album always begins with the music.
00:23There have been times in my career where I had, like,
00:26an idea in terms of, like, how to conceptually approach a record.
00:30I would say that this album, from start to finish,
00:34it was like pieces coming together.
00:36And I did not want to turn it into anything artificial.
00:42I really wanted to allow myself to, like, just follow the music.
00:46It started to slowly remind me of, like, my earlier work.
00:50The mayhem of my approach to pop music,
00:53which is, like, something that, like, is mine, that I feel proud of.
00:59I did want the chaos to end.
01:01And that's why the record is the way that it is.
01:04It's sort of like there being an end in sight to the chaos, I think, gives it some hope.
01:17What was it that was kind of fearful for you about doing that?
01:21I think I felt a lot of pressure.
01:22Yeah?
01:23I felt pressure to, yeah, like, ever since my first album.
01:26You know, I did listen to what people would say.
01:28Will she outdo herself? Can she top herself?
01:30Can she live up to it? You know, she needs to evolve.
01:33Or, you know, she hasn't changed enough.
01:35There was a lot of noise. I was young, too.
01:37Of course.
01:38You know, and I'm 38 now. I'm a lot more confident in myself.
01:42But I think I found my confidence in this record.
01:45Oh.
01:46Like, making the album and facing the mayhem of it all
01:50and taking the pressure off myself helped me to value what I feel really matters about me as a person,
01:59which is, you know, my relationships and the people that I love
02:03and treating people with love and respect all around me.
02:05And then also putting my musicianship first.
02:08Oh.
02:09When you put your artistry first and you take the other stuff away,
02:13like the competition of it all, and some of that's being a woman in music.
02:18Of course.
02:19When you take that away, it gave me so much dignity.
02:22Yeah.
02:23And I didn't realize how much I was craving it.
02:34What was interesting about that song is that as I started writing it,
02:38it started out with just that ominous loop that's at the front.
02:43It freaked me out when I first heard it.
02:45It absolutely freaked me out.
02:46It's dark.
02:47Yeah.
02:48I started writing, and I knew right away what I wanted to say.
02:53Yeah.
02:54And I had this feeling inside myself of, you can't write about that.
02:59Like, you can't show this part of yourself.
03:02Then I was like, no.
03:04Go with the chaos.
03:05Absolutely.
03:06Embrace it.
03:07What do you want to say?
03:08And I'm made of plastic like a human doll.
03:10You push and pull me.
03:11I don't hurt at all.
03:12I talk in circles because my brain, it aches.
03:14You say, I love you.
03:15I disintegrate it.
03:16It became complicated so quickly of owning that I wanted to be a star.
03:22Yeah.
03:23And that it did bring a lot of complication in my life,
03:27but also the anger that I felt towards myself, that I brought it on myself.
03:31Yeah.
03:32So it's a complicated song, and it's an angry song.
03:35I was nervous to put it on the album, but part of Mayhem is I just put it all out there.
03:41And I tried to really own who I am and just be proud of my approach to music,
03:47my approach to pop music.
03:49And then also even through Abracadabra,
03:51which is very different from Perfect Celebrity,
03:53take ownership over something that I started a long time ago.
03:57Yeah.
03:58Now, this might just be me being an unhinged fan,
04:00but when I was listening to it,
04:02did I catch a reference to your song Princess Die in Perfect Celebrity?
04:07Yes.
04:08Okay.
04:09Incredible.
04:10I heard that.
04:11I heard it, and I was just like,
04:12Princess Die, that's my favorite unreleased Gaga track.
04:14Yeah.
04:15And it's unreleased, and I was like,
04:16it deserves to be released.
04:17It absolutely does.
04:26Part of my personal mayhem is that it's fun,
04:30and that's why I keep doing it.
04:32You know what I mean?
04:34And that's what makes it complicated,
04:37is this thing that is dark.
04:40It also is the best time.
04:43And I think by that point in the album,
04:45this is when you're just at the party,
04:47and you're totally numbing out.
04:49And now you've fully accepted that by the morning
04:52you are not going to feel well,
04:54but you're fully in it.
04:56It's just a good time.
04:57And I do think that I felt a lot of pressure over the years
05:01to prove myself as a musician.
05:03Absolutely.
05:04And that sometimes stopped me from having fun.
05:07Oh.
05:08You know?
05:09So I tried to have a lot of fun making this record.
05:19You are so good at working with
05:21all of these different producers,
05:23whether it's DJ White Shadow, Fernando Garibay,
05:26Takami, and now, obviously, Andrew Watt,
05:28Circuit, Gustav Holstein.
05:30And yet it always is still so distinctly Gaga.
05:33I really wanted to...
05:36I wanted to be myself.
05:38I've always been myself in my music,
05:41but there have been times
05:42when I have wanted to change who I was.
05:45And that's still an authentic process.
05:47Sure.
05:48But this was different.
05:50And I've always had these, like, twisted dreams.
05:53And, like, that's the way I kind of, like, process life
05:56is these, like, dark, twisted dreams.
05:58They reemerged during this album,
06:00and I tried musically to work with people
06:04that I could push myself with
06:06so that it wouldn't be, like, something exactly that...
06:08Because it's not exactly what you've heard from me before.
06:11No.
06:12But there's the DNA of my approach to pop music.
06:15Yeah, there's, like, little pieces of it
06:16throughout the album.
06:17Completely agree.
06:18And I love a big sweeping melody.
06:20I mean...
06:21I love a big chorus.
06:22I love multiple hooks.
06:23I love a great bridge.
06:24I love a pre that, like, slides right into...
06:27Like, there's things that, like, I need to happen, you know?
06:30And I think that's okay.
06:32Like, as the musical landscape changes,
06:35I think it's okay to be influenced by it,
06:37but I think it's also okay to, like, know who you are.
06:40Absolutely.
06:41And, like, just be you.
06:42I was about to say,
06:43thank you for keeping the bridges in pop music.
06:45It's so important to me that bridges stay in pop music.
06:47If the world was ending,
06:50I'd want to be next to you.
06:53I'm really grateful, and I'm really beside myself.
06:57I never expect anything like this.
07:00You never know.
07:01This is really, like, a true honor and privilege.
07:06And I have to say,
07:07social media was so different when I started
07:10to where it is now.
07:12I've seen Little Monsters be, like, so amazing
07:17for almost 20 years.
07:19I haven't seen us like this in a long time.
07:23When Disease came out, it was, like, something...
07:26It was truly, like, sleeper agents.
07:28Like, people were activated.
07:30I'm so grateful to have, like, access to everybody's content.
07:34Like, seriously.
07:35Absolutely.
07:36No, but it's, like, I'm just, like, thank you.
07:38It's so beautiful.
07:39And it's, like, everybody's so talented
07:41between the dancing, the makeup, the costumes.
07:44Like, it just gives me so much life.
07:46I'm really honored, and I don't expect it.
07:49I really don't.
07:50All I ever want to do is make something
07:52that you press play, and you feel good
07:55for the duration of the record.
07:57And maybe you play it again
07:59because you want to do it one more time.
08:01But, like, I just want to make people smile.
08:10You've been commenting on, like, every video.
08:12That's me.
08:13I know that that's you.
08:14It is me.
08:15I mean, why is that so important for you
08:17to be showing that love right back to them?
08:19Well, I mean, that's the way we always were.
08:22It just wasn't, like, to this extent
08:25because we didn't have the same tools
08:27to talk to each other.
08:29It was just slightly different,
08:30but we always tried our best.
08:32We've been having this conversation
08:33through art and fashion and politics
08:36for a long time.
08:38I always say that I have the best seat in the house,
08:41you know, because I get to watch the fans.
08:43It's so cool, and it means a lot to me.
08:46It means a lot to Michael, too,
08:48because he sees how happy it makes me.
08:50He loves seeing me feel happy
08:52and make the fans happy.
08:53I just want to say tonight that
08:55trans people are not invisible.
09:01Trans people deserve love.
09:02The queer community deserves to be lifted up.
09:05What is your reaction to the way
09:07that the trans community is being treated
09:09by this administration right now?
09:10It is abysmal and horrible
09:13and violent and wrong.
09:15I just want to extend all my love
09:18and gratitude to the trans community
09:21for showing us so much strength and love.
09:26Gaga, thank you so much.
09:27This was incredible.
09:28It was so nice to get to meet you.
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