Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars are grinning all the way to the grave in the music video for their new surprise collaboration, “Die With a Smile,” which Entertainment Weekly has learned is a special one-off duet between the hit-making pair.
The stripped-back video (below) dropped Friday at midnight, and its late-night vibe carried through the visual’s aesthetic. Beginning with Mars strumming a guitar in a ’70s-inspired TV studio populated by faceless mannequins, the vintage ballad kicks off with the “Grenade” singer lamenting the thought of living life without his love.
“I just woke up from a dream where you and I had to say goodbye / And I don’t know what it all means / But since I survived / I realized wherever you go that’s where I’ll follow. Nobody’s promised tomorrow / So I’mma love you every night like it’s the last night,” he sings at the top of the song, before taking on the chorus: “If the world was ending I’d wanna be next to you / If the party was over and our time on Earth was through / I’d wanna hold you just for a while and die with a smile / If the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you.”
The camera then pulls back to show Gaga sitting at a piano next to Mars as she puffs on a cigarette while playing and singing her solo verse.
“Lost in the words that we scream / I don’t even wanna do this anymore / Because you already know what you mean to me / And our love is the only war worth fighting for,” she croons. “Wherever you go / That’s where I’ll follow / Nobody’s promised tomorrow / So I’mma love you every night like it’s the last night.”
The duo then launch into the soaring chorus together, and finish off the video with a sweet look into each other’s eyes while a heart shape forms around them.
A notable departure from both artists’ typical style, “Die With a Smile” is a string-laced ballad harkening back to the glistening passion of ’60s and ’70s pop ballads, with emotional bravado that recalls Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s past hit duet, “Shallow,” from their 2018 movie, A Star Is Born.
Lady Gaga/Youtube
Said Gaga of the song in a press statement: “Bruno and I have a lot of mutual respect for each other and were talking about collaborating. I was finishing up my own album in Malibu, and one night after a long day he asked me to come to his studio to hear something he was working on. It was around midnight when I got there, and I was blown away when I heard what he had started making. We stayed up all night and finished writing and recording the song. Bruno’s talent is beyond explanation.”
Added Mars, “Getting to work with Gaga has been an honor. She’s an icon and she makes this song magical. I’m so excited for everyone to hear it.”
Gaga and Mars first teased their one-off single in a series of social media posts earlier this week, with Mars sharing a post in which he wore a shirt with Gaga’s face on it, and Gaga returning the favor in a video of her playing the song’s melody on a piano in a top sporting an image of Mars.
The single marks the first time either artist has released new music in more than two years. Gaga’s last formal release as a pop artist was her Oscar-nominated 2022 Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack song, “Hold My Hand,” while Mars’ last single was 2022’s “After Last Night,” from An Evening With Silk Sonic, his 2021 album with collaborator Anderson .Paak.
Mars hasn’t released a solo album since 2016’s 24K Magic, while Gaga’s most recent pop album is 2020’s Chromatica, which was followed by an accompanying concert film earlier this year. The project ended with a previously unannounced tease for her upcoming seventh studio album, dubbed LG7 by fans, alongside a brief clip of a new song.
Before “Die With a Smile,” Gaga recreated a classic 1965 Ed Sullivan Show performance at the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, when she sang a pre-recorded cover of French star Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc En Plumes” along the banks of the Seine in Paris. She is next set to star as Harley Quinn in the DC Comics blockbuster sequel Joker: Folie à Deux opposite Joaquin Phoenix.
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Mars is scheduled for two headlining performances at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome on Thursday and Friday, before continuing his Bruno Mars at Park MGM Las Vegas residency on Aug. 20.
Watch Gaga and Mars in the “Die With a Smile” music video above.
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