Lady Gaga on the red carpet for the premiere of 'Maestro,' December 2023.
Lady Gaga is dialing up anticipation for new music in the most 2024 manner possible: posting contextless images of herself in a recording studio.
In the two images posted to her Instagram account on Jan. 9, Gaga was photographed in a small studio environment with only the caption of a black heart emoji and musical notes.
Gaga has noticeably scaled back from recording and releasing solo material in recent years. Instead, her activity has largely been dominated by acting, (spending the majority of 2023 on the upcoming Todd Phillips-directed sequel to Joker, the musical thriller Joker: Folie à Deux, in which she inhabits the iconic role of Harley Quinn), philanthropy (her Born This Way Foundation) and her vegan, cruelty-free cosmetic brand Haus Labs. Her music career has nonetheless encompassed multiple genres, from 2018-19's two-part residency in Las Vegas to soundtrack-specific compositions and, most poignantly, her last duets album with the late Tony Bennett, 2021's Grammy-winning Love For Sale.
Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, on the set of 'Joker: Folie à Deux.'
Juggling an assortment of wide-ranging projects is certainly not unchartered territory for Gaga, and the album gaps have certainly been filled to the brim. 2018 and 2019 saw her dominate the awards season for her co-starring role with Bradley Cooper in a remake of A Star Is Born. She won an Academy Award, BAFTA, multiple Grammys and a Golden Globe all for the film's music, particularly the folk-rock-country single "Shallow," becoming the first woman to win all these accolades in a single year.
After the release of 2020's Chromatica and the pandemic-delayed tour, in which she only played 20 dates in 2022, Gaga has concentrated on individual song releases, namely "Hold My Hand" for Maverick: Top Gun and working with the Rolling Stones on their epic, gospel-themed track "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" from Hackney Diamonds. Gaga then stepped up to the mic with Jagger and Co. at their album release at Racket in New York City on October 19, and delivered a blistering live version that was released in December.
Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga - Love For Sale (Official Music Video)
Considering that a collection of new material hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while, the ardent responses to her Instagram post ("Oh Mother Is Coming," "Happy place," "I'm sat") indicate that her 'Little Monsters' (and pretty much everyone else) will be waiting on pins and needles for the drop.
