Chromatica is the fifth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga and her sixth overall. It was released on May 29, 2020, by Interscope Records and its subsidiary Streamline. Gaga supervised the production with longtime collaborator BloodPop and a variety of other producers to create the album. Musically, Chromatica is a dance-pop record inspired by early 1990s house music, returning Gaga to her dance music roots and eschewing the stripped-down style of its predecessors Joanne (2016) and A Star Is Born (2018). The album's visual aesthetic saw Gaga adopt a cyberpunk-inspired persona.
Chromatica is a concept album centering on ideas of unwavering happiness and the pursuit of healing. Songs on the record encompass themes inspired by failed romance and mental health struggles in Gaga's private life. The music is distinguished by dense synthesizers, percussion, grooves, and orchestral arrangements that merge overarching melodies. Blackpink, Ariana Grande, and Elton John contribute guest vocals. Most of the recording took place at Henson Recording Studios and Gaga's in-home Hollywood Hills studio. Interscope advertised Chromatica through product endorsements and TV partnerships, although the marketing campaign was adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To support the album, Gaga embarked on The Chromatica Ball concert series in July 2022, the first all-stadium tour of her career, after it was postponed twice due to the pandemic. It was commemorated in the 2024 HBO/Max special, Gaga Chromatica Ball.
Four singles supported the album, including the US Billboard Hot 100 top-five entry "Stupid Love", and "Rain on Me" with Grande, which marked Gaga's fifth number one song on the chart. "911" and "Free Woman" were released as singles in select countries. Chromatica was well received by music critics; the craftsmanship and treatment of the subject matter were praised, though the house production drew criticism from some. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, Chromatica was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Rain on Me" earned Gaga's second Best Pop Duo/Group Performance win. The album topped the charts in various countries, including the US, where it marked Gaga's sixth consecutive number-one on the Billboard 200. A remix album of Chromatica, titled Dawn of Chromatica, featuring an array of artists, was released on September 3, 2021.
Background
After the mixed response to Artpop (2013), American singer Lady Gaga re-emerged from the interim with a revamped stage persona emphasizing her vocal ability. Her jazz collaboration with Tony Bennett, Cheek to Cheek (2014), professional expansion, candid expression of her personal life in the media, and departure from her avant-garde visual style established the singer's rebranding, culminating with the release of her fifth studio album Joanne (2016). Joanne transcended the electronic sound of Gaga's repertoire by incorporating country and soft rock textures. Despite the album's somewhat more favorable reception, the media still questioned the authenticity of Gaga's output of music. Nevertheless, Joanne debuted as the artist's fourth consecutive chart-topping album in the US and spawned the multi-platinum single "Million Reasons".
Gaga provided brief insight on new material in interviews conducted before her final Dive Bar Tour show. She first arranged previews at Dive Bar and then her global Joanne World Tour, but scheduling conflicts, coupled with production constraints, halted the singer's pursuits. By the time she was contracted for A Star Is Born (2018), Gaga's progress on a standalone project intensified. Her existing commitment to A Star Is Born, however, soon took precedence, which meant the singer was unable to fully devote her attention to new material for another year.
Most of Chromatica songwriting derives from Gaga's mental health struggles precipitated by her fame. In candid views of her personal life, the singer admitted to being in a "dark place" during the album's recording, remarking, "I felt threatened by the things my career brought into my life and the pace of my life. I spent a lot of time in a sort of catatonic state of just not wanting to do anything. And then I finally, slowly started to make music and tell my story through my record." The failure of Joanne to achieve catharsis for Gaga's grieving father and family, still in the fallout of her aunt's death, exacerbated the singer's depression. She therefore found writing Chromatica therapeutic. Gaga also drew upon her past relationships to shape the album's subject matter.
Recording
Chromatica is co-executive producer BloodPop's second album with Gaga. They detailed basic ideas but had no immediate professional commitment until a listening preview of a rough "Stupid Love" demo ignited their interest. The two recorded most of Chromatica at Gaga's in-home Hollywood Hills recording studio, previously owned by Frank Zappa, before coordinating their remaining sessions at the Henson Recording Studios. With no concise vision yet to reference, they experimented on a piano and developed the nascent sounds to their corresponding mood. Gaga and BloodPop ultimately imagined an album rooted in vintage early 1990s house, an approach first articulated from their exchange of ideas with Scottish pop producer Burns, an early collaborator with experience working the British acid house circuit. Gaga's reassurance in her music output marked an important transition in the recording process, though she faulted some of the difficulties of recording on her fibromyalgia. Devising more poignant lyrics was an intense process which posed another challenge because Gaga had to relive past trauma to achieve her desired result. The singer admits she was compelled to finish thanks to the camaraderie she developed with BloodPop.
Gaga said she and BloodPop assembled their team of producers based on their ingenuity. Experimental musician Sophie was Interscope's first choice; ultimately her demos did not make the final cut. Interscope also recruited Swedish House Mafia's Axwell, Skrillex, Artpop collaborator Madeon, Tchami, Boys Noize and Benjamin Rice for their services. They worked in equal roles in the formation of the music, creating between 50 and 100 tracks in total. The shared responsibilities meant that, according to Gaga, the producers did not become possessive over the work, and hence sustain rapport to realize the singer's ideas in various directions.
Other key contributors on Chromatica are Ariana Grande, K-Pop girl group Blackpink and Elton John, hired as the album's vocal collaborators. "Rain on Me" sees Gaga and Grande unite by their shared plight in the media. Blackpink members sing English and Korean lyrics in the album's second collaboration, "Sour Candy". According to Gaga, they were eager to take up the task when she called them for the request. The starting point of the final track, "Sine from Above", was an initially unreleased track Axwell and John produced seven years before production. Gaga cites John, one of the singer's longtime mentors, as a driving force in her sobriety, and their friendship was an important factor in his hiring.
Once Chromatica took definite form, Gaga felt the completed work exuded a "cinematic" quality. She and BloodPop tapped musician Morgan Kibby to compose three orchestral interludes to coalesce Chromatica melodic themes. They spent about two weeks creating the interludes, first researching source material the producers felt embodied the spectacle they envisioned for the album, before recording with a 26-person orchestra. Kibby said the main melodic themes explore resilience and the battle between dark and light. The producers completed the compositions merely days before they were scheduled to master Chromatica.
Title and artwork
Gaga proposed Free Woman as a tentative working title from her fondness of the identically named album track, but the singer felt her internal struggles called into question the proposed title's integrity. She instead chose Chromatica for the title of her project, the product of her concept of a distant fantastical planet of in-fighting warrior tribes that come together for healing and peace through dance. Gaga describes the synthesis of color and sound as the framework for planet Chromatica and her shared vision with BloodPop. She remarked, "We're talking about inclusivity and life, and also a lot of what we see around us and what we're experiencing is math, which is very much like music and sound is math as well. So we talked about that, and then I sort of went back and I said, 'OK, well, yeah, it's inclusivity but it's really a way of thinking', it's not just, 'Oh, Chromatica, we're being inclusive with all the colors, all the people', and when I say, 'All the colors, all the people', I mean way more than we could possibly fathom." Gaga re-emerged for the album cycle with a flamboyant cyberpunk-inspired stage persona, continuing her trademark of artistic reinvention.
Interscope assigned veteran photographer Norbert Schoerner the responsibility of shooting Chromatica front cover photo. A small crew of independent artists undertook wardrobe design under the supervision of longtime Gaga collaborator Nicola Formichetti, who oversaw the shoot's artistic direction. The producers sourced most pieces of Gaga's wardrobe from Spanish designer Cecilio Castrillo. Chromatica cover, released to the press in early April 2020, features Gaga costumed in hot pink hair, a studded-and-spiked metallic bodysuit, embellished platform boots, welded claws, and a spiked bionic sleeve on her left arm. She sprawls on a large metal grate illuminated by bright pink neon light, trapped beneath a massive metal sine wave. The singer explained that the sine wave is not only the symbol of the planet Chromatica, but the mathematical symbol for sound, which expresses how making music was therapeutic for her. The treatment of the cover, and the artwork's cyberpunk sensibility, prompted journalist comparisons to science fiction media such as Mad Max, Mortal Kombat, and the Alien franchise.
Music and lyrics Overview Chromatica evinced a return to Gaga's characteristic dance-pop style, eschewing the acoustic musical form of Joanne and A Star Is Born. The album's production is distinguished by dense synthesizers, pulsating percussion, ringing grooves, and orchestral arrangements which coalesce overarching melodic themes. Since Gaga sought to recreate authentic 1990s house, the album forgoes contemporary R&B and trap crossover trends popular in mainstream music of the period. Gaga and the producers' devotion to said vision led their total immersion in the music culture, influencing both their choice of technology and studio technique to ensure fidelity. In doing so, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine argues, the artist exploits her veteran popstar sensibility, making little attempt to engineer a modern sound. Critics note stylistic debts to a spectrum of genres as techno, trance, and new wave.