gaga

dead dance, wednesday, and a reign of pop power

By Daniel May

From Harlequin in late 2024 to her boundary smashing Mayhem in 2025, Lady Gaga continues to defy expectation and redefine the art of pop. At 39, she is not just topping charts, she is tearing aside the barriers between music, fashion, television and fandom. With her record breaking Mayhem Ball tour underway, a new album announcement, her role in Wednesday Season 2, and the world domination of her latest single Dead Dance, Gaga remains an unstoppable force, constantly reinventing while captivating the world.

A Reinvention in Full Swing

Lady Gaga’s recent career shows no signs of slowing down. In October 2024 she dropped Harlequin, a jazz flavoured companion album connected to her role in Joker: Folie à Deux. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Jazz chart and marked her strongest jazz debut yet, reminding the world of her versatility.

Just a few months later, on March 7 2025, Gaga released Mayhem, a synth pop odyssey blending electro, industrial dance, disco, funk and rock. Critics hailed it as a triumphant return to form, and fans quickly agreed. The record shot to number one in more than twenty countries and delivered the biggest first week US sales of any female album in 2025 so far.

Singles Spinning the Charts

The rollout for Mayhem was led by a series of powerful singles. “Disease,” released in late 2024, set the stage, but it was “Abracadabra” that became the global breakout. The track surged into the top five of the Billboard Global 200 and secured top ten positions across multiple territories.

Perhaps even more significant was “Die with a Smile,” her soulful duet with Bruno Mars released in August 2024. The single dominated streaming services and radio, holding the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for five non consecutive weeks. With that, Gaga became the first artist to score chart topping singles in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s, a milestone very few can claim.

And now comes Dead Dance — a gothic electro anthem tied to her role in Wednesday Season 2. The track has stormed global charts, shattered TikTok trends, and become a viral soundtrack for millions of fan edits. Critics have already called it her most thrilling single in years, while its haunting choreography has sparked a worldwide dance craze.

Tour de Force: The Mayhem Ball

The live experience of Mayhem has been brought to life in her current world tour, The Mayhem Ball. Kicking off in Las Vegas in July 2025, the arena sized extravaganza will run through January 2026 with more than sixty shows across North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.

In typical Gaga fashion, she has already set records. A free performance on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach drew an estimated 2.5 million fans, the largest concert by a female artist this century. In Singapore, her residency shows drove hotel bookings up by more than 350 percent and injected hundreds of millions into the local economy. With previous tours like The Chromatica Ball grossing over 110 million dollars, expectations are high, and Gaga is exceeding them once again.

Beyond the Music: Wednesday and the Graveyard Gala

Never one to limit herself to one art form, Gaga has been making waves on screen and in fashion. In August 2025 she surprised fans at Netflix and Spotify’s gothic themed Graveyard Gala in New York, appearing in a spectacular avant goth look complete with balloon trousers, corseted sleeves and towering platform boots.

At the event she unveiled her new single Dead Dance, tied directly to her upcoming role in Wednesday Season 2. Gaga will star as Rosaline Rotwood, a mysterious new teacher at Nevermore Academy. With a Tim Burton directed video rumoured to accompany the track, anticipation is sky high.

In another typically eccentric twist, Gaga secretly joined a Roblox fashion event under disguise to promote Dead Dance, only revealing her identity after the fact. It was yet another example of how she fuses technology, play and artistry to create viral moments that capture the internet’s imagination.

Awards Season and the MTV Spotlight If 2025 has proven anything, it is that Gaga is still very much an awards season darling. Earlier this year she hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time, performed a medley of new tracks at YouTube’s Brandcast event, and received the Innovator Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

But it was her jaw dropping performance of Dead Dance at the MTV Video Music Awards that cemented her reign this year. Draped in a gothic glam ensemble that felt straight out of Nevermore Academy, Gaga delivered an electrifying routine that blended horror theatre visuals with immaculate vocals. Social media lit up instantly, with fans and critics alike declaring it one of her most iconic award show moments since “Paparazzi” at the 2009 VMAs.

She also walked away with multiple wins, including Artist of the Year, further solidifying her dominance in 2025.

What’s Next for Mother Monster

Looking ahead, Gaga’s calendar is as packed as ever. The Mayhem Ball will carry her through early 2026, hitting major arenas around the world. On September 3, her new single Dead Dance and her debut appearance in Wednesday Season 2 arrived at the same time, setting the stage for another cultural takeover.

Rumours are swirling about a future cinematic project, possibly with Tim

Burton, as well as additional singles from Mayhem lined up for release later this year. Awards season buzz continues to build, with critics already eyeing her for possible Grammy and Golden Globe nominations in early 2026.

Conclusion

Seventeen years into her career, Lady Gaga remains one of the most dynamic and unpredictable forces in global pop culture. With Mayhem she has delivered both critical acclaim and commercial success. With The Mayhem Ball she is once again redefining the scale of live performance. And with Dead Dance and Wednesday, she has tapped into a whole new cultural moment, proving she can still surprise and dominate every platform.

Lady Gaga has always thrived on reinvention, but 2025 may be her boldest transformation yet. If there is one certainty about Gaga, it is that she will continue to surprise, inspire and command the stage, wherever that stage happens to be.