Lady Gaga’s newest album, Dawn of Chromatica, released on September 3, 2021, features remixes of tracks on the artist’s sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020). Mother is transforming last year’s tracks with the help of fellow artists, including Charli XCX, Bree Runway, Pabllo Vitta, and up-and-coming Sapphic pop princess – with a metal twist – Rina Sawayama.
Lady Gaga’s transparency and vulnerability, which has been consistent throughout her career, is admirable. The 2020 Chromatica album was about healing from pain, stemming from “[Gaga’s] experience with depression, PTSD, fibromyalgia, [and] past breakups,” according to Harper’s Bazaar. Gaga opened up to Oprah about some of these aspects of her life on The Me You Can’t See.
Free Woman!
The addition of other artists to the 2021 remix album is symbolic of collective healing: the “Dawn” to Gaga’s dark nights is soldiering on through the support of other people. BloodPop, the executive producer who worked with Lady Gaga on Joanne (2016) and Chromatica, called the album “purely a celebration of music and great artists,” in a series of tweets. But it’s more than that: it’s about harmonizing our struggles so the weight isn’t as heavy on each individual.
Rina Sawayama collaborated with Lady Gaga on “Free Woman,” which is Track 5 on the 2020 Chromatica album. “Free Woman” is all about surviving and healing from the pain of sexual assault.
“I was sexually assaulted by a music producer,” Gaga said in an interview with Zane Lowe. “It’s compounded all of my feelings about life, feelings about the world, feelings about the industry, what I had to compromise and go through to get to where I am. And I had to put it there. And when I was able to finally celebrate it, I said, ‘You know what? I’m not nothing without a steady hand. I’m not nothing unless I know I can. I’m still something If I don’t got a man, I’m a free woman’…It’s me going, ‘I’m no longer going to define myself as a survivor, or a victim of sexual assault. I just am a person that is free, who went through some fucked-up shit.”
Supporting the LGBT
An LGBT artist whose past work with Gaga was considered for collaboration on Dawn of Cromatica was the late Scottish producer SOPHIE, yet none of the songs made the cut. “We worked with SOPHIE very early on. [She was] the first collaborator of those sessions. Those days were fun. We set up six microphones and recorded [Gaga’s] Lamborghini exhaust, and SOPHIE cut it up into samples,” BloodPop said. “[Though they didn’t make the album], we still plan to finish those songs and present something special within the Chromatica universe.”
Bisexual in her own right, Lady Gaga has a history of celebrating LGBT people, and Dawn of Chromatica is no exception. Can you believe that “Born This Way” was released 10 years ago? If it wasn’t for trailblazers like Lady Gaga, who has always preached self-acceptance, then we wouldn’t have rainbow-sparkled rockets like Jojo Siwa so happily embracing their sexual orientation and unique style today.
Lady Gaga wrote on twitter: “PAIN IS A SINE…I invite you to dance to this album in celebration of young artists all over the world. Artists who see the world, feel the world, and put that feeling into something bigger than all of us: music. All love, LG xx.”
2021 is set to be a busy year for Lady Gaga. Not only did she release a special edition Born This Way project for Pride, and Dawn of Chromatica, but she’ll be starring in House of Gucci this November.
