Shortly after releasing her dark electro single “Disease,” Lady Gaga has unveiled the official music video.
In the new visuals, Gaga faces various versions of herself, some eerier than others, as she strives to take control of her deepest fears made manifest. Before the music video’s global debut, Gaga shared a statement on her Instagram stories about the song’s significance.
“I think a lot about the relationship I have with my own inner demons,” she wrote. “It’s never been easy for me to face how I get seduced by chaos and turmoil. It makes me feel claustrophobic. Disease is about facing that fear, facing myself and my inner darkness, and realizing that sometimes I can’t win or escape the parts of myself that scare me. That I can try and run from them but they are still part of me and I can run and run but eventually I’ll meet that part of myself again, even if only for a moment. Dancing, morphing, running, purging. Again and again, back with myself. This integration is ultimately beautiful to me because it’s mine and I’ve learned to handle it.”
She concluded with, “I am the conductor of my own symphony. I am every actor in the plays that are my art and my life. No matter how scary the question, the answers are inside of me. Essential, inextricable parts of what makes me me. I save myself by keeping going. I am the whole me, I am strong, and I am up for the challenge. Happy Halloween.”
“Disease” was released last Friday after clues about its launch began to surface. Fans spotted a pop-up site on Universal Music that allowed pre-saves for the single, linking to Apple Music and Spotify. Gaga also shared a playlist of past hits on Spotify, with certain letters capitalized and lowercase spelling out “Gaga Disease.” This led fans to gagadisease.com, which revealed a series of websites that disclosed some of the song’s lyrics.
Gaga is currently enjoying success with “Die With a Smile,” her duet with Mars that came out in August. The song has been a commercial hit, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and currently at No. 4. It has amassed over 770 million streams on Spotify, and its official video has garnered 230 million views on YouTube.
The pop star is preparing for the release of her seventh album, tentatively scheduled for February. Last month, she surprise-released “Harlequin,” a collection mostly featuring American Songbook standards inspired by her role as Harley Quinn in the film “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
