In the last few years, Lady Gaga has found new ways to show us the human inside of the fame monster. She offered her equivalent of rootsy singer-songwriter fare on Joanne, opened up about her private pain and trauma in the press, and delivered a moving (and meta) performance in A Star Is Born.
But we all knew a time would come when Gaga would return to her high-camp dance-pop theatrics. In March 2019, amid gossip that she was expecting, Gaga revealed that new music was on the way. “Rumors I’m pregnant?” she tweeted. “Yeah, I’m pregnant with #LG6.” The road from there to Chromatica has been fraught: songs leaked, Target accidentally shared the tracklist early, and the album was pushed back nearly two months, following the coronavirus.