Mother Monster is f*ucking back! Last Friday, Lady Gaga released the first single off of her much awaited seventh studio album, titled Disease, and today, she finally shared the unsettling, horror-coded music video. Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Tanu Muiño, the cinematic four-minute-long piece shows the audience a new Gaga, one that confronts her inner demons, fears, and concerns in her darkest, most twisted version to date. Watch it now!
It’s been quite a long time since we last saw the pop star embracing her dark, weird side. She broke into stardom precisely because of that — her unapologetic looks, artistic fashion choices, and going against the flow to redefine pop music. She put the industry upside down, creating a stellar legacy that’s still influential today. After exploring other paths and genres, Chromatica was her comeback to pop, and the upcoming LG7 (a provisional title that fans are using to refer to Gaga’s upcoming album, due in February of 2025) is most likely to cement that. But we know she doesn’t like to settle for the easy road and, instead, loves to push the boundaries of what’s been done to give it her own spin.
Just after releasing the music video of Disease, the New York-born singer took to Instagram to explain its meaning more in depth: “I think a lot about the relationship I have with my own inner demons. It’s never been easy for me to face how I get seduced by chaos and turmoil. It makes me feel claustrophobic,” she starts. “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.”
This inescapable fight with oneself (the inner saboteur, as RuPaul would say) is portrayed viscerally in the music video directed by Tanu Muiño. There are three main characters — they’re all Lady Gaga. But we see her different sides confronting each other: the person vs the character, Stefani Germanotta vs Lady Gaga, her past vs her future. In her own words, “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. 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.”
