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Born This Way (album)

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For the song by Lady Gaga, see Born This Way (song). For the song by Valentino, see I Was Born This Way.

Untitled

Born This Way is the forthcoming second full-length studio album by American recording artist Lady Gaga. The album is scheduled for release on May 20, 2011 in Ireland,[2] and May 23 elsewhere, by Interscope Records. Preceding its release, the album's eponymous lead single "Born This Way" debuted on February 11, 2011, the second single "Judas" was released on April 15, 2011[3] , the third "The Edge of Glory" on May 9, 2011, and the fourth "Hair" on May 16, 2011.

The album's title was revealed as Gaga accepted the 2010 MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year,[4] while the release date was confirmed on her official Twitter page at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day 2011.

Background and development

By late March 2010, Gaga stated that she had begun working upon new material for Born This Way; adding that she had "already written the core of it."[5] Three months later, she commented that she "felt very strongly" that she had completed the album. Upon being interviewed, she said, "It came so quickly. I've been working on it for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day."[6]

By the last quarter of 2010, Troy Carter, Gaga's manager, and frequent collaborator/producer RedOne gave personal opinions upon the album.[7] Carter explained that they were just starting to play the album to the label. He said, "We're very excited about [Born This Way]. We're starting to play a little for people and getting a feel for it, and she's done an incredible job, a really incredible job. Well, you know what, it's not where I go from a business standpoint, it's more about where she goes creatively because, truth be told, we built the business around her creative infrastructure and that business that was built is unique to Lady Gaga."[7] RedOne added, "I think it's more of her freedom album. [... T]his album that she's making is too precious to talk about. [...] I think it's too precious for me to talk about it."[7]

Artwork

On April 17, 2011, Gaga tweeted her selection for the Born This Way album's cover art, which featured Gaga fused into a motorcycle. Gaga's name does not appear on the album cover – the only text is the chrome writing across the top reading the album's name.[8] The cover received a negative response from some critics and fans. Sean Michaels of The Guardian said of the cover: "...it looks more like a cheap Photoshop job than the most anticipated album of the year." He then commented: "Gone are the futurist sunglasses, the asymmetrical haircuts, even Gaga's newly touted magic horns; instead, a mutant motorbike with Gaga's arms and head, plus a cheesy chrome typeface." He also referenced several messages from fans on Lady Gaga's official forum expressing their dislike for the cover.[9] Andrew Martin of Prefix Magazine referred to it as "a reject from the last Terminator film".[10] The special edition cover was released on the same day. It featured just Gaga's head from the standard edition cover. The words "Lady Gaga" and "Born This Way" appear in the top left corner of the cover. They are typed in Impact font with "Born This Way" being highlighted in white with black letters. Neither of the words special nor deluxe appear anywhere on the album, as Gaga dislikes the words.[11]

Composition

"I promise you, I'll never let you down. And not for nothing: The album's finished and it's fucking really good. So whatever this is, whatever you just did for all of us […] I promise to give you the greatest album of this decade […] The funny thing is that some people have reduced freedom to a brand. They think that it's trendy now to be free. They think it's trendy to be excited about your identity. When in truth, there is nothing trendy about Born This Way. This connection that we all share is something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or an outfit, or a fucking meat dress. […] Born This Way is about what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid."[12]

—Lady Gaga talking to her fans about Born This Way

Gaga announced on November 26, 2010 during the Monster Ball in Gdansk, Poland, that the album could have up to 20 tracks, and promised that it would be the album of the decade. She also added that the album is completely finished. Gaga stated that it's full of "sledge hammering dance beats."[13] She also explained that the album is going to be like “bad kids going to church, having fun on a high level.”[14] It was confirmed in an interview with Vogue that 17 tracks were recorded for the new album,[15] 14 of which will make the final cut to the standard edition. The leftover 3 were originally going to be released on an exclusive Target deluxe edition of the album[16] but on March 9, it was reported that Gaga ended her partnership with Target on the grounds that the company donated money to an anti-gay organization.[17]

In an interview with the BBC's Newsbeat Gaga commented on the album stating "The album is a marriage of electronic music with major, epic, dare I even say, metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats. It's finished and all, it's just fine-tuning everything. It's kind of like the post-operative stage of the album. I've already done the full heart surgery. I'm just sewing myself back up again. I think that lyrically this album is more poetic. It's really written by the fans, they really wrote it for me because every night they're funneling so much into me. So I wrote it for them. Born This Way is all about my little monsters and me, mother monster."[18]

Release and promotion

Born This Way is scheduled for a worldwide release on May 23, 2011,[19][20] though it will be released on May 18, 2011 on the Swedish based music streaming service Spotify in Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Finland, and Spain,[21] as well as Metro.Co.Uk in the United Kingdom.[22] While accepting the Video of the Year award (for "Bad Romance") at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga announced the album's title before declaring that she promised that she would reveal it if she won that award. This revelation was followed by Gaga singing a few lines from the title song: "I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes; I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way."[23] Given as a Christmas "gift" to her fans,[24] Gaga announced via Twitter the release dates of the album and its lead single at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day 2011.[19] Supplementing this announcement came a black-and-white photograph in which Gaga is "nude from the waist down, with her hair blowing about, and sporting a jacket with [Born This Way] emblazoned in what looks like bedazzled jewels."[19] She revealed the album's cover artwork on April 15, 2011 on Twitter.[25]

Lady Gaga and her dancers performing "Born This Way" for the first time at "The Monster Ball Tour", in February 2011, Atlantic City.

Additionally contributing to a Paris fashion show, in mid January 2011, by designer Thierry Mugler for which Gaga was named musical director, she previewed a remixed version of "Scheiße" (German for "shit"), a song that appears on the album which "begins with Gaga repeating foreign phrases over a thumping club beat."[26] She released the complete set of lyrics to "Born This Way" on her official Twitter page in late January 2011.[27] The names of the five songs that appear on the album were revealed in the March 2011 issue of US Vogue.[15] At the beginning of March, Gaga, as the musical director at another Mugler fashion show in Paris, unveiled a preview of "Government Hooker" described as featuring "a thumping beat, operatic vocals and a trance-y vibe."[28]

Promotion for Born This Way began through a performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards on February 13 in Los Angeles[29] where she performed the album's title track and first single "Born This Way". Before the performance, Gaga was found "incubating" on the Red Carpet. She was encased in a translucent material that was said to be an embryo, which she came out of on stage during the beginning of her performance. She was dressed in a skin-colored outfit with noticeable protrusions coming out of her face and shoulders. Towards the end of the performance, she began playing an organ before singing the end of the song.[29] Gaga also performed "Yoü and I" on Today's Toyota Concert Series in July 2010.[30] Both "Born This Way" and "Yoü and I" have since been added to her set list at The Monster Ball Tour. It was also confirmed that Gaga will perform "Judas" on the season 10 finale of American Idol on May 19. "Americano", one of her tracks on "Born This Way", was premiered during a live show in Guadalajara, Mexico on May 3rd, 2011. Gaga played the song on her piano as she sang it. The lyrics to the song was bilingual, consisting of Spanish and English. This song was written by Gaga as a response to the Arizona Immigration law, Arizona SB 1070.

Singles

"Born This Way" was released as the album's lead single on February 11, 2011.[31][32] The song was written by Lady Gaga and Jeppe Laursen, and produced by Gaga, Laursen, Fernando Garibay, and DJ White Shadow.[33] Its accompanying music video was shot the weekend of January 22–24, 2011.[34] "Born This Way" became Gaga's third number-one hit in the United States, appearing atop the Hot 100 and breaking several digital sales and radio records, as announced by Billboard on February 16, 2011.[35] Billboard also announced the song was its 1,000th number one. In addition to success in the United States, the song debuted within the top 5 in more than 23 countries, and getting to number 1 in 20 of them.

"Judas" was confirmed by Gaga as the second single on Ryan Seacrest's radio show, American Top 40, on February 14, 2011.[36] Gaga announced the release date of April 19 for "Judas" through a video blog called Transmission Gagavision on April 6, 2011. Gaga revealed in an interview with Google that she is going to direct the music video for "Judas" with Laurieann Gibson.[37] On April 15, 2011, "Judas" was released to radio and put up for legal download worldwide due to a low-quality snippet leak.[38] The music video was released on Thursday May 5, 2011 at 7 and 11:30 pm through Vevo and E! News.[39]

"The Edge of Glory" was released on May 9, 2011 originally as a promotional single on the "Countdown to Born This Way" promotion on iTunes. However, due to the success of the song on iTunes charts worldwide, "The Edge of Glory" was made the offical third single on May 11, 2011.[40] The next promotional single from the album will be "Hair", released on May 16, 2011.[41]

Track listing

Standard edition[42]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Marry the Night"  4:24
2."Born This Way"Lady Gaga, Jeppe Laursen, Fernando Garibay, Paul Blair[43]Lady Gaga, Laursen, Garibay, DJ White Shadow[44]4:20
3."Government Hooker" DJ White Shadow[45]4:14
4."Judas"Lady Gaga, RedOne[46]RedOne, Lady Gaga[47]4:10
5."Americano" Lady Gaga, Garibay, DJ White Shadow[48]4:06
6."Hair"  5:08
7."Scheiße"Lady Gaga, RedOne[49] 3:45
8."Bloody Mary"Lady Gaga, Garibay, Blair[50] 4:04
9."Bad Kids"Lady Gaga, Laursen[51] 3:50
10."Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)"  4:15
11."Heavy Metal Lover"  4:12
12."Electric Chapel"  4:12
13."Yoü and I"Lady Gaga[52]Robert John "Mutt" Lange[53]5:07
14."The Edge of Glory"Lady Gaga, Garibay, Blair[54] 5:21
Total length:61:08
International bonus track[55][56]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
15."Born This Way (Jost & Naaf Remix)"Lady Gaga, Laursen, Garibay, Blair[43]5:58
Japanese bonus track
No.TitleLength
16."Born This Way (LLG vs GLG Radio Remix)" 

Expanded edition

Disc 1[56][42]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Marry the Night"  4:24
2."Born This Way"Lady Gaga, Laursen, Garibay, Blair[43]Lady Gaga, Laursen, Garibay, DJ White Shadow[44]4:20
3."Government Hooker" DJ White Shadow[45]4:14
4."Judas"Lady Gaga, RedOne[46]RedOne, Lady Gaga[47]4:10
5."Americano" Lady Gaga, Garibay, DJ White Shadow[48]4:06
6."Hair"Lady Gaga, RedOneRedOne5:08
7."Scheiße"Lady Gaga, RedOne[49] 3:45
8."Bloody Mary"  4:04
9."Black Jesus † Amen Fashion"   
10."Bad Kids"  3:50
11."Fashion of His Love"   
12."Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)"  4:15
13."Heavy Metal Lover"  4:12
14."Electric Chapel"  4:12
15."The Queen"   
16."Yoü and I"Lady Gaga[52]Robert John "Mutt" Lange[53]5:07
17."The Edge of Glory"  5:21
Disc 2[56][42]
No.TitleWriter(s)Remixer(s)Length
1."Born This Way" (The Country Road Version)Lady Gaga, Laursen, Garibay, BlairLady Gaga, Garibay[57]4:21
2."Judas" (DJ White Shadow Remix)Lady Gaga, RedOneDJ White Shadow[42] 
3."Marry the Night" (Fernando Garibay Remix) Garibay[42] 
4."Scheiße" (DJ White Shadow Mugler)Lady Gaga, RedOneDJ White Shadow[42] 
5."Fashion of His Love" (Fernando Garibay Remix) Garibay[42] 
International bonus track
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Born This Way (Jost & Naaf Remix)"Lady Gaga, Laursen, Garibay, Blair[43]5:58
Japanese bonus track
No.TitleLength
7."Born This Way (LLG vs GLG Radio Remix)" 

References

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