Harlequin Live - delayed intentionally?

[Controversiaga 12,252]

Due to Joker 2 horrible reception- did Gaga’s team intentionally delay this LIVE special, maybe even consider scrapping, until seeing if the GP could move on and forget about Joker and see how well Gaga’s MAYHEM album would do……and THEEEEN finally release this live special?

 

it just seems odd and out of place to be finally getting released NOW, other than the fact that Gaga had an insanely successful 2025 and the Grammys are around tbe corner, and by now everyone has moved on from Joker 2… 

[Anderson123 39,711]

I think she planned to do the Harlequin special for Christmas 2024 if the reception for the movie had been good in a way to promote for awards season but at the same time it works that it's for the Grammys. She probably just wanted to focus on Mayhem after that and put it on hold til now. Or maybe editing took longer and it was never intended to be released back then? Who knows.

[chewing on pearls 530]

I think it's something she's really proud of, and with the Grammys hype continually ramping up, it makes sense to release now. Maybe at the time she felt like MAYHEM would eclipse how incredible it is, and she wanted to do it justice!  

Also, we just put out a "revisiting Harlequin" episode of the podcast! 

[Ladle Ghoulash 31,144]

No shade, but I think the reasoning is relatively obvious: they pulled it at the time to avoid compounding the heat she was getting about Joker 2 and are releasing it now as part of the campaign for Harlequin to win Best Pop Vocal Album.

Edited 34 minutes ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[nATAH 52,075]

not sure but both options work

to go from Disease back to HQ is quite the whiplash, i think it's better it's coming now that mayhem has settled and gives HQ another chance to shine, especially for the grammys

it would have been forgotten and overshadowed by Abra very quickly

Edited 1 hour ago by nATAH

[VTV 13,060]

Gaga probably wanted to separate the Harlequin experience from Joker. They prob know the film would tank after watching the final cut so they gave birth to Grammyquin.

[Sneaky Oliver 22,423]

Well it’s kinda obvious now, when it comes out, no one is going to associate it with Joker 2 or its flop, it’s just the live special for the jazz album that came before Mayhem  

I wonder if they considered to scrap the whole thing for good if Harlequin didn’t get any Grammy noms but since it did, they’re obviously bringing it back for campaign purposes 

Edited 1 hour ago by Sneaky Oliver

[River 120,210]

she's cooking a holidays classic album, she's gonna do it every xmas now.

[timdrake 1,211]

44 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

No shade, but I think the reasoning is relatively obvious: they pulled it at the time to avoid compounding the heat she was getting about Joker 2 and is releasing it now as part of the campaign for Harlequin to win Best Pop Vocal Album.

agreed! and like, this is the same woman who gets asked about ARTPOP every day 12 years later even though the GP panned it initially... I think she realizes things may be appreciated more once some time has passed 😅 

so excited for this. Harlequin is such a good record

[Ladle Ghoulash 31,144]

6 minutes ago, timdrake said:

agreed! and like, this is the same woman who gets asked about ARTPOP every day 12 years later even though the GP panned it initially... I think she realizes things may be appreciated more once some time has passed 😅 

so excited for this. Harlequin is such a good record

OT: I would love for her to pull a TSwift and re-record “vault tracks” from each record and do some re-issues. 

[timdrake 1,211]

2 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

OT: I would love for her to pull a TSwift and re-record “vault tracks” from each record and do some re-issues. 

yessss please. her 2025 vocals on Brooklyn Nights are so incredible, I'd love other unreleased gems to get that treatment 

[Jack3257 789]

1 hour ago, VTV said:

Gaga probably wanted to separate the Harlequin experience from Joker. They prob know the film would tank after watching the final cut so they gave birth to Grammyquin.

My theory for a while had been that Gaga created the album so when you searched “Lady Gaga Harley Quinn” the amazing jazz album would come up, not the flop of a movie.