Bloody Mary (song)

"Bloody Mary"
Song

"Bloody Mary" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga from her second studio album, Born This Way (2011). The song was written by DJ White Shadow, Lady Gaga, Fernando Garibay and Grigahcine William Sami Etienne, and produced by Lady Gaga and DJ White Shadow. It was recorded in a recording studio in New York. An instrumental clip was used during Transmission Gagavision 42.

Background

"Bloody Mary" is an slow-tempo electropop song, that contains "plucked strings" and "filthy beats", and a trance-influenced melody, explained Billboard Magazine Simply, it's an electropop-opera, how Gaga said on her Twitter account. In an interview with Popjustice, after being asked why is she so fascinated with Mary Magdalene and why she inspired her to write the song, Gaga stated: "Because when I was young and I went to Catholic school – an all girls school – we were told to pray to God and pray to Jesus, but I always prayed to women. I guess I always worshipped a more feminine force in my life and I didn’t view God as having a particular gender. I always either prayed to Mother Mary or Mary Magdelene, or to my father’s sister Joanne who had died when he was a kid because I viewed her as an angel in the sky in the house of the Kingdom working alongside God. You know, watching over me. It must be so big up there. A lot of people. So I always prayed to women and that’s the thing that I look to now to make me strong in this very unique situation that is being a pop singer. I always pray to Mary and to Joanne. It’s very sad that in those "Biblical" times women were stoned for adultery or for doing inappropriate things. Women were always the target, so I guess I looked to my past and my faith to find bravery in myself. So on this record I thought a lot about my faith and tried to channel a lot of that into myself, and so make myself brave." Than she said: "So the lyrics are Mary sort of talking... If you listen to the lyrics and the way the cadence goes, the way I’m actually singing, I start quite sweetly then I go into these quite demonic tones, then I come back to sweetness, and then the chorus is me ultimately, publicly singing, ‘I won’t cry for you, I won’t crucify the things you do, I won’t cry for you when you’re gone I’ll still be Bloody Mary’. I’ll still bleed, is what I’m trying to say. I guess I’m fascinated by her – like I said, I worshipped women in my religion as a young girl – and in my belief Mary was in it all along. I think she knew what was going to happen. But I also believe that she loved him, and I believe there was a moment when she cried. So she says ‘I won’t cry for you’ but in the rest of the song, in the way that it feels, it’s sad and quite… Dirgic? Is that the right word? Like a death dirge… There’s that kind of quality to it. It’s about me having to be a superstar." During the interview, Gaga also stated how the song was written: "We were in New York. White Shadow had this crazy beat then we threw it in the computer and Fernando started making Gregorian pop chants and then I wrote it pretty quickly." After that, Gaga joked and said that all songs on the album were written in fifteen minutes.

Reception

Critical response

"Bloody Mary" received mainly positive reviews from critics. NME Magazine explained that "Bloody Mary" is a "serene flipside to "Judas", second single off the album, this time using Ms Magdalene to do much the same job, as dainty plucked strings careen around filthy beats to create something weirdly graceful.

Live Performances

Lady Gaga performed "Bloody Mary" during her third concert tour, The Born This Way Ball.

Track Listing

• "Bloody Mary" – 4:04
• "Bloody Mary" (The Horrors remix) - 5:21

Credits and personnel

• DJ White Shadow - songwriter and producer
• Lady Gaga – vocals, songwriter and producer
• Fernando Garibay - songwriter
• Grigahcine William Sami Etienne - songwriter

Charts

Chart (2012)	Peak position
Taiwan Top 10	1 References