The title of “Die With a Smile†feels a bit too on the nose for how Lady Gaga’s week on the Hot 100 went. While her power-ballad duet with Bruno Mars peaked at No. 2, her new song, “Disease,†debuted at No. 27 — her worst entry for a lead single in 16 years. As she embarks on another album rollout, the first offering from LG7 emphasizes a long-running problem: Gaga is struggling to produce chart-topping singles by herself.
After releasing her debut, The Fame, in 2008, Gaga quickly became a dominant pop hitmaker. She sent singles “Just Dance†and “Poker Face†to No. 1 and followed them up with four additional top-five hits. “Born This Way,†the lead offering from her sophomore album, further confirmed her star power when it debuted at No. 1. But it was also the last time Gaga would top the Hot 100 without a featured guest. While she used her new clout to take risks on her next two albums, neither paid off commercially — the singles from 2013’s abrasive Artpop and 2016’s rootsy Joanne never came within striking distance of her earliest hits. When Gaga did return to to the top, she had an assist from Bradley Cooper; their Star Is Born duet “Shallow†peaked after the pair’s buzzy Osars performance. By 2020, Gaga had finally gone back to making dance-pop with “Stupid Love,†the lead single from her new album, Chromatica. But its success was short-lived. Instead of climbing like her previous No. 1s had, it made an embarrassing tumble from its No. 5 debut to No. 30 the following week. Again, Gaga needed help to secure her next No. 1, which she got from Ariana Grande on the follow-up single “Rain on Me.â€
Four years later, “Die With a Smile†occupies a similar space as a duet of two of the biggest names in pop. While Bruno Mars doesn’t have stans like Grande, he’s been more consistent than Gaga on the charts — every one of his albums has put out at least one No. 1 single. “Smile†also arrived with the anticipation of both singers’ returns to music, following Chromatica and Mars’s 2021 Silk Sonic album. But that also made “Smile†a hard act to follow. Though Gaga stans seemed excited for “Disease†— especially after it was touted as a return to Born This Way–era pop — “Smile†was already drawing so much attention that the LG7 single didn’t stand a chance of becoming its own event. Gaga’s team seemed to realize this when they decided to release a live version of “Die With a Smile†alongside the music video for “Disease†halfway through the tracking week. The strategy was clear: If “Disease†wasn’t going to make a massive splash, perhaps it could buoy “Smile.†It worked with the latter gaining in streams and becoming the best-selling song of the week once again. But it came at the expense of “Disease,†which couldn’t sustain its promising early numbers and wound up floundering on the final chart. “Disease†got the dutiful attention of a pop single, but “Smile†was still clearly the event.
Even without “Smile†in the way, though, “Disease†would have continued Gaga’s solo No. 1 struggles. If returning to an old sound didn’t carry 2020’s “Stupid Love†to the top, why would “Disease†have been any different? When Gaga earned that first No. 1 for “Just Dance,†she helped usher in a fresh synth-pop sound to the top of the charts. Today, though, even a high-concept music video can’t bring the same thrill to “Disease,†especially for a sound that’s gone out of fashion (just ask Katy Perry). Gaga making four-on-the-floor pop on her own is no longer surprising, but pairing up with Mars or Grande — especially for a new sound, like the throwback rock of “Smile — still is.
Gaga’s retreats to synth-pop with Chromatica and “Disease†are clearly reactions to the lukewarm success of Artpop and Joanne, but this may actually be the time to take more risks. (Judging by this year’s pop-country boom, Joanne may have been a little too early.) Those albums’ singles may not have reached the top of the charts, but if Gaga’s returns-to-form aren’t getting there, either, what does she have to lose? She could make the hard-rock album she flirted with on Born This Way or follow her country muse from Joanne even further. The successes of “Smile†and “Rain on Me†show that listeners still see Gaga as a pop star on a similar tier to Mars or Grande; that’s what makes those collabs so exciting. They’re just waiting for her to move the needle on her own again. There’s no guarantee that it’ll work, but it’s happened before — look at Beyoncé, who broke a more-than-decade-long drought of solo No. 1s with her house-pop song “Break My Soul†in 2022. If anyone can innovate in the same way, it’s Gaga.