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The title is nice.... But the rest of reads like a polite version of what the haters have been saying

Critic gives Gaga a compliment without it being a backhanded one - Challenge Level: Impossible

I don’t know why but it really irks me to read commentary about Harlequin’s chart performance as if it was a full blown mainstream pop release. Sure it might’ve faired better had the movie been a success, but it was always a niche project. It’s an album of jazz-style covers… I don’t think it was ever intended to set the charts alight. Anyway, small frustration given the rest of the article is kind of whack. Not that there weren’t valid points made but I don’t know why critics have such a hard time just giving Gaga her flowers.

Monthly listeners 116,832,820 (+225,025) *new peak*

I love Yummy more than most of Chromatica Have a nice day

DWAS 1,522,464,108 (+10,727,996) Poker Face 1,514,064,032 (+1,144,279) ARUTW 1,460,813,635 (+923,639) Disease 111,036,183 (+856,950) (+60k WoW)

WHO TF BUMPED THIS

genuinely hate this comparison

I agree. I would also suggest that she should remove her pop/dance albums from streaming/sale to reduce the risk of people coming for jazz, finding the pop and leaving. The customer is always right and Gaga should make it easy for them to access the music they wanat

She wants to let her children miss her just like Ethan's child misses him

Well if it’s just for the money, then go on a greatest hits tour or smth

Agreed. Its conclusion is bizarre though. Paragraphs of "Bruno & Gaga are old and needed a hit before their career died". Conclusion "old singers in the 21st century don't have fall off windows" And like saying we expect singers to only be successful for a decade like Madonna? Sorry what? Madonna who after 40 years just did her biggest ever attended concert?

Throughout chart history, there’s a special breed of duet by two recording artists so illustrious I can abbreviate each name with a mononym, and you know who I’m talking about and probably even the song. In many cases, you might even start singing the chorus from memory—from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” to Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine.” On paper, each duet is a summit of superstars, with both artists contributing a roughly equal measure of fame and lung power to the equation. But the reality is often subtler than that—career-wise, each superstar needed something from the other. Often, one act is a bit thirstier than the other. When you encounter one of these mega-duets, you should ask yourself, Who needed this more? Which brings us to this week’s Hot 100, and our new No. 1 song—actually a months-old song. The first chart-topper of 2025 is a power ballad that arrived in the late summer of ’24 on a wave of hype, seemed destined to peter out, and yet proved stickier than expected. Like many of the duets above—both the classics and the curios—it’s an event more than a mere song, a testament to the persistence of a pair of stars entering middle age. These two, in fact, scored their first hits during Obama’s first term and are topping the charts once again just in time for Trump 2.0. So … mononym fans, I give you: Bruno and Gaga. “Die With a Smile,” the first-ever collaboration between Peter Gene Hernandez, aka Bruno Mars, and Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, takes over the Hot 100 as the annual onslaught of Christmas music recedes. The first full week of January always brings about the evaporation of Mariah Carey’s and Brenda Lee’s holiday perennials, at which time whatever nonseasonal song is closest to the penthouse takes up residence there. That could just as easily have been Shaboozey’s record-tying “A Bar Song (Tipsy),”or any one of the hit tracks from Kendrick Lamar’s still-fairly-new album GNX. But over the holidays, Bruno and Gaga’s 5-month-old ditty quietly held its own, hovering just below all the merry-season fodder. This week, as the Christmas songs melt away, it soars from No. 17 to No. 1, having emerged as radio’s consensus hit over the holiday season. As uninspiring as that sounds, “consensus hit” really is the best way to describe “Die With a Smile.” It’s not an innovative song—nothing that will set any novelty-seeking pop fan’s heart aflutter. It’s a decent piece of craftsmanship by a pair of veterans and their respective song doctors. Both Mars and Gaga have produced better hits before. Hell, they’ve each generated better duets before—among my personal favorites are Mars teaming up with Cardi B on his “Finesse” remix (No. 3, 2018) and with Anderson .Paak on the Silk Sonic smash “Leave the Door Open” (No. 1, 2021), and Gaga teaming with, among her many vocal partners, Beyoncé on “Telephone” (No. 3, 2010) and, famously, actor-director Bradley Cooper on “Shallow” (No. 1, 2019). But “Die With a Smile” turned out to be a grower—a song that was instantly familiar on first listen, easy to forget in its early weeks, and ultimately comfort food as we made our way past Election Day and the holidays. It is soothing pablum as we worry about our future and watch the world burn. Especially considering that this song was recorded in Malibu, the line, “If the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you” sounds queasily apt this week in particular. Musically, “Die With a Smile” distills sounds both artists have pursued before—his brand of loverman pop-and-B crossed with her variety of baby-grand balladry. (There’s a slight whiff of country in there, but more on that in a moment.) Mars and Gaga have both always been magpies, absorbing styles as part of their chart conquest. And these two have been at the pop game long enough that it’s hard to say there’s any one “Bruno sound” or “Gaga sound”; you’re not going to find any of her art-damaged dance pop à la “Poker Face” or “Bad Romance” in here, nor does he traffic in the ’80s style-jacking of “Locked Out of Heaven” or “Uptown Funk!” By 21st-century songwriting standards—modern pop hits can have a dozen or more collaborators—the two kept their circle relatively tight. Mars leaned on his frequent collaborators Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and James Fauntleroy, and Gaga brought in journeyman rock producer Andrew Watt, who was working on her forthcoming album. Together, the five of them crafted a song that’s painfully earnest, really quite square. If I had to assign a percentage (much the way you can tell when a Lennon-McCartney song is more John or more Paul), I’d say Mars had the upper hand. “Smile” comes closer to Bruno’s brand of retro-R&B—if he’d recorded it with Anderson .Paak and made it 25 percent more ’70s-plush, it could easily have been issued as a Silk Sonic record. But with Gaga on board, the song is less winky and more heart-on-sleeve, recalling the piano ballads she’s sprinkled throughout her career, like “Speechless” or “Million Reasons.” On the whole, “Die With a Smile” is what you get when two kitschy performers try to turn down the kitsch. Another country duo Mars and Gaga may be invoking, however indirectly, is Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, one of the legendary pairings I cited above. (Gaga’s hair, in particular—in both the video and on the single’s cover art—is definitely giving Dolly.) Back in 1983, when Rogers and Parton recorded the Bee Gees–penned smash “Islands in the Stream,” they were entering middle age—Kenny was 44 at the time, Dolly 37—and trying to reignite their pop-crossover careers. Both remained galactically famous but had veered back toward the country charts after dalliances with pop at the turn of the ’80s. Weirdly, Rogers and Parton had never duetted on a record before—they’d only ever sung together on a Parton TV variety show in 1976—and both happened to be in neighboring studios in ’83 when producer Barry Gibb suggested that Parton sing on Rogers’ single. “Islands” was a happy bit of happenstance, and they would work together countless times in the years after “Islands.” Mars and Gaga are at a roughly analogous life juncture and similarly trying to give their careers some giddy up after a decade and a half apiece of hitmaking. Like Kenny and Dolly, they had only crossed paths on a variety special, singing at a Victoria’s Secret fashion showcase in 2016. They admired each other’s work and even traded off residencies in Las Vegas, where they pledged to perform together. Both were coming off relatively fallow periods on the charts: Mars hadn’t cracked the Top 40 in about three years, Gaga more than four. Joining forces in the studio last summer was a career-rejuvenating insurance policy for both of them. The stakes seem higher for Lady Gaga. Arguably, she needs this more than Mars does. Not only is she weeks away from releasing a new album—and has promised that “Die with a Smile” will be on it, ensuring it will come preloaded with a No. 1 hit—she is also trying to clear off the stink of a couple of recent projects. These include her much-hyped movie role in the Joker musical sequel Folie à Deux, an instantly notorious flop; and the companion album Harlequin, a jazzy pseudo-soundtrack “inspired by” Joker 2 that spent just one week on the Billboard 200 album chart last fall at No. 20 before plummeting. As Katy Perry learned the hard way last year, the pop audience can be unforgiving to women in their late 30s, particularly those who, like Perry or Gaga, give off try-hard energy. Reverting to what worked in the past is no guarantee—in November, Gaga released her new solo single, “Disease,” a return to the buzzing electropop sound of her cybernetic Born This Way–ARTPOP era. The song was musically deft and critically acclaimed, but audiences collectively shrugged: “Disease” debuted and peaked at No. 27 on the Hot 100 and is already out of the Top 40. It was supposed to be the new Gaga album’s first single but has effectively been replaced by “Die with a Smile,” a Bruno Mars side project that has taken on outsize importance in Gaga’s comeback. For Mars, meanwhile, the stakes seem considerably less precipitous. As I chronicled on a 2023 Hit Parade podcast episode about his career, Bruno is remarkably nimble shapeshifter whom audiences seem to welcome back even after yearslong breaks. If you need further evidence that Bruno is not only bulletproof but can bring back any retro style and make it a hit, just scan this week’s Hot 100, where he is not only No. 1 with Lady Gaga but also cracking the Top Five in another duet with K-pop superstar Rosé, of girl group Blackpink. Their teamup “APT.”—an Anglicization of the Korean term apateu and a play on the English abbreviation for apartment—is a reboot of vintage Toni Basil with a soupçon of ’00s indie-pop à la the Ting Tings. The duet already made history in the fall when it debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 8, instantly making Rosé the first K-pop female soloist to crack the U.S. Top 10. Bruno really can get anyone a hit. Pop careers were never really meant to last this long—decades ago, we accepted that the Beatles, Bee Gees, Prince, and Madonna would do their prime hitmaking for about a decade, then slow their roll in the years that followed. (What just happened to Katy Perry is closer to the norm.) But if there’s one theme that’s run through the biggest music careers of the 21st century, it’s that once we have invested in a name-brand mononym, from Beyoncé to Drake to Taylor, we’re willing to follow them through decades of pop byways and genre dabbling. And if two of those mononyms want to join forces on one über-single? Well, then … as Bruno and Gaga might say, nobody’s promised tomorrow, but the party’s not over. https://slate.com/culture/2025/01/bruno-mars-lady-gaga-die-with-a-smile-apt-billboard.html#

gaga and bruno could get solo number ones if they tried and released a super undeniable song of their own, but blending the two fan bases is smart and clearly paid off. idc if gaga needs collabs to get number one hits cuz she has nothing to prove, shes one of the best out there and if anything she should be the top female considering her level of talent, so no i dont mind her using collabs to chart well

It's an interesting article, a bit hard on Gaga but not dishonestly so. I disagree with the headline, though (that they needed each other) - I think it's fairer to say that, in terms of getting a #1 hit, Gaga probably needed Bruno. The proof isn't only in Disease's disappointing chart performance, but also in the fact that Rose's solo singles have been performing poorly as well. Bruno is the common factor here. I think that in both cases the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so it's not that I'm not giving Gaga or Rose any credit, but I think it's pretty clear whose star power is more responsible for Apt and DWAS becoming hits.

Talk of the charts predicts DWAS hitting #1 for third week with around 44 points ahead #2 (Bad Bunny) https://x.com/talkofthecharts/status/1878463617852739850?t=ZGt8fAlijD1WlsDY-QIVCQ&s=19

Yay Disease rising a lot in France, it's never really over #154 (+20) Disease 70,001

DWAS is now Lady Gaga's 2nd most streamed song on Spotify. It's also now Bruno's 9th. DWAS passed both Poker Face and Grenade today

SPOTIFY ACHIEVEMENTS YESTERDAY (for 09.01.25) : Shallow crosses 2.642b streams (2,642,086,724) Poker Face crosses 1.511b streams (1,511,760,244) Die With A Smile crosses 1.500b streams (1,500,696,998) ARUTW crosses 1.458b streams (1,458,837,362) Just Dance crosses 1.234b streams (1,234,771,944) Applause crosses 622m streams (622,167,371) Bloody Mary crosses 609m streams (609,185,382) Alejandro crosses 533m streams (533,152,803) Disease crosses 109m streams (109,237,071) Replay crosses 90m streams (90,017,888) Speechless crosses 72m streams (72,007,945) DWAS becomes Gaga's third track to reach 1.5b streams and in less than 5 months too, insane! Replay reaches 90m streams, becoming the sixth Chromatica track to achieve this! Disease is now Gaga's 35th (+1) most-streamed track, surpassing I Don't Know What Love Is.

He should go into acting

The way she set the kitchen on fire attempting to cook a spaghetti dinner for a drunkard and made a name for falling off the bar while go go dancing That’s my mama

the mall i work in continues to be gaga obsessed... Shallow, HMH, Sour Candy, Alice, Stupid Love, Bloody Mary, DWAS and now Disease are regularly played throughout the entire building to the point where i'm actually tired of most of these songs

Even Chromatica was more exciting at this point, we are really reaching a new low

Hot 100 Final prediction by Talkofthecharts #1. (=) DWAS - 257 pts *2nd week at #1* #2. (=) ABS - 200 pts #4. (+23) Morgan - 184 pts A lot of album bombs from Bad Bunny & Lil Baby A reminder that Talkofthecharts is NOT Billboard and NOT official. They only "predict."

Maybe not, but you won't see articles like this about Beyonce for example who, if anyone remembers, had her collab era in the late 2010s.

He can keep his new music if it's going to be like his last few albums... That awful song, Yummy, started the pandemic

Not the NIN-inspired second single from LG7 "Disease"?

I found this in the Venus stems and I had never heard it before, so I uploaded it to soundcloud. There's a different version of the "Botticelli nude is a beauty" vocal too. The vocal is "Earth, Wind, Water, Sky, ... FATHER!" (Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place, I've never posted before) Edit: The new alternate Botticelli nude vocal Edit 2: Full unused new demo vocals Edit 3: ANOTHER version of botticelli nude is a beauty Edit 4: Work it, Pluto + Chorus I'm gonna stop posting them now to avoid spamming but I'll upload anything else I think is cool to my soundcloud

DWAS surpassed 1.1 Billion plays on YouTube Music

Spotify Monthly Listeners (12/01/25) 2 The Weeknd: 116,993,810 (+81,574) 3 Lady Gaga: 116,832,820 (+225,025) GAP: 160,990 (-143,451)

Ugh, I can already sense DWAS will be a sore thumb of sorts for the whole LG7 campaign (is it even happening at this point or the management and the label decided that slapping that song on the album was enough to make the album a success, hence no need to push more songs from it?). I hate the idea that this album will be remembered for having DWAS on it. TERRIBLE considering Disease is the lead single + the sound and vibe from the Paris snippets... Also, why does the author imply it was somehow Gaga's fault that the audience shrugged at Disease? It remains an immaculate classic-Gaga addition to her catalogue. Stupid Love for comparison may not have been shrugged at by the GP but it remains an abysmal low for a Gaga lead quality-wise. Then there's the Harlequin dismissal, again why? The quality is right there. Happy Mistake blows all her ballads out of the water for me, with the exception of Speechless. Sorry for the vent, but we are again at a point where she's not getting enough credit for the quality of her output. Paradoxically, her highest rated album is Chromatica, which is easily her most basic one. Whenever she does something more complex she's misunderstood. It's always been a part of our journey with her, I guess.

Didn't bother reading because I knew it'd be the same backhand compliment, passive aggressive bs her critics have been serving since the beginning. Things like this make me mourn journalism's slow death a bit less - at least we'll get less tiresome commentary such as this. Also, the song is a hit because people like it. There's not really a narrative outside of two famous people singing together, which is a very thin, very basic narrative that is true of all collaborations on earth. If the song itself wasn't appealing, there would be no hit for Bruno and Gaga. I don't know why stan twitter and music journalists have trouble trying to make sense of this. It really does feel like their logic is "but it's not a bawp!!" Now I know how Adele and her fans feel.

And we were right when we were saying "February of what year" I almost had a heart attack when I saw this trending. I thought it was new

+474.940 Streams more than last saturday 🫶 DWAS is unstoppable

Bad Romance reached 1.4 Billion streams on Spotify Her 5th song to achieve it, following Shallow, Die With A Smile, Poker Face and Always Remember Us This Way.

I said a successful solo project and not a no1 per se. Gaga has had numerous moments of tremendous success since born this way. Yet anytime she's successful, people (even fans) look for a reason to rationalize it instead sticking to the obvious reasons like quality of the project and timing of release. How many times and ways is Gaga expected to prove herself? especially when bruno hasn't received much solo success of his own in almost a decade but these same petty conversations aren't being had about him? These conversations really pisses me off because for the first time I followed chart data tracking because of how much I love DWAS and no one can deny the fact that little monsters did most of the heavy lifting for those first week numbers before brunos demographic even caught on.

This is actually a really decent article. I thought it would be something from a hater based on the comments here, but it kind of just lays out the facts. Chris Molanphy is a great pop music and chart analyst who has been writing about Gaga for years.

Did an OGH wrote this? Lol i dont love the song but this article is something else

He looked up “songs that released in 2024” and just picked the first one he saw

https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1878490760686755878

ABTLABinsider is one of the fakest beings on the internet

Yeah, this all checks out. She was just like me fr that's how I know that's my mother 😭

SOOOOO.....We move to LA. My father gets a job at the palm restaurant

Bro you need to swirl your perspective around. She's getting ready to perform 2 massive shows in the next few months. Give her some credit!!

SPOTIFY ACHIEVEMENTS TODAY (for 10.01.25) : Shallow crosses 2.643b streams (2,643,062,528) Poker Face crosses 1.512b streams (1,512,919,753) Die With A Smile crosses 1.511b streams (1,511,736,112) ARUTW crosses 1.459b streams (1,459,889,996) Bad Romance crosses 1.399b streams (1,399,627,076) Just Dance crosses 1.235b streams (1,235,668,078) Telephone crosses 805m streams (805,157,117) Paparazzi crosses 700m streams (700,288,230) Judas crosses 684m streams (684,721,640) Born This Way crosses 667m streams (667,045,846) LoveGame crosses 470m streams (470,114,591) Disease crosses 110m streams (110,179,233) Americano crosses 93m streams (93,041,063) World On A String crosses 3m streams (3,001,278)

Tbf it's not wrong.