UPDATE: Gaga confirmed that “Disease” is coming this Friday (Oct. 25). In an Instagram post, Gaga shared the cover art for the single — showing her face-down on the hood of a white car, with the single’s title written upside down in white street paint — and revealed its official release time for a series of major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, London and elsewhere.
Lady Gaga has the cure for your “Disease.” The Joker: Folie à Deux star appeared to signal the kick-off of her next era over the weekend when several teasers suggested that the first single from Gaga’s upcoming as-yet-untitled seventh studio album is just around the corner. Though Gaga had not officially announced any details about the song on her socials at press time, there were a handful of Easter eggs that hatched with clues about the singer’s follow-up to her surprise Joker-inspired Harlequin jazz album.
The first was a pre-save option from her parent label Universal that led to options to grab the song on Spotify or Apple music when it’s released on Friday (Oct. 25). The page features the title of the song displayed backwards.
In addition, eagle-eyed fans noticed that a new 11-song playlist posted on Gaga’s Spotify page last week featured an acrostic clue, with the first four songs (“Government Hooker,” “Always Remember Us This Way,” “G.U.Y.” and “Americano”) spelling out GAGA and the next seven spelling out “disease” in lower case letters.
Little Monsters can also click over to gagadisease.com, where they can find the words “I could play the doctor” flashing on a black background, as well as icouldplaythedoctor.com, which features a similar flashing message reading “I can cure your disease.” If you continue down the rabbit hole and type each new phrase in as the url, you’ll find additional lyrics, including: “If you were a sinner/ I could make you believe/ Lay you down like 1, 2, 3/ Eyes roll back in ecstasy/ I can smell your sickness/ I can cure ya/ Cure your disease.” The final image takes you back to the Universal pre-save page.
Gaga has already confirmed that her upcoming pop album is due out in February and that the first single will be released this month. For now, the Harlequin album netted Gaga her third No. 1 on the Billboard jazz charts, while her Bruno Mars collab, “Die With a Smile,” just scored its seventh week atop the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts.
