Lady Gaga embraces complexity with 'Joker: Folie à Deux' companion album

Lady Gaga discussed her upcoming album, Harlequin, with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.

Gaga shared, "I think that for me, this idea of dual identities was always something that was a part of my music-making. I was always creating characters in my music, and when I made Lee for Joker, she just really had this profound effect on me."

She explained, "The film had so much music in it, so much music that I love, and I was able to discover the character through the story, through the music that we did live every day as well as dance and the costumes and the makeup. So I kind of had this deep experience with the character and she just didn’t really leave me creatively, and I decided I wanted to make a whole album inspired by her."

Gaga highlighted her character's complexity by noting, "Lee is a really complex woman and I think, particularly as a woman in music and a female producer, it was really fun to go, 'This album will be and I will be what I want, when I decide, whenever I feel like it. If I want it to be blues, it’ll be blues. If I want it to be funk, it’ll be funk. If I want it to be soul, it’ll be soul.'"

Harlequin, announced earlier this week, features 13 tracks, including Good Morning, Get Happy (2024), and Folie à Deux.

Zane Lowe described the album as LG 6.5, meaning "half Gaga and half Lee."

Gaga agreed, "Yeah, it was really fun. It was completely freeing because calling it LG 6.5, it's kind of not beholden to pop music or pop culture in the same way that some of my other releases might be. And it kind of gave it a freedom in that way."

Todd Phillips' Joker musical sequel, starring Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, premieres on October 4.