Lady Gaga has previewed a new song from her forthcoming LP, Harlequin, out Sept. 27. The album is a companion piece to her film Joker: Folie à Deux, a musical of sorts in which the singer plays Harley Quinn.
Gaga shared a clip of the dramatic tune on Instagram along with a video shot in the Louvre museum in Paris, where her character defaces the Mona Lisa with red lipstick. “There’s always a Joker,” she wrote in the caption. Although she did not clarify the song’s title, it appears to be titled “The Joker.”
Harlequin will feature jazz standards like “Oh, When the Saints” (made famous by Louis Armstrong) and “Get Happy” (Judy Garland), and marks her first jazz release since the death of her collaborator Tony Bennett (the duo released 2014’s Cheek to Cheek and 2021’s Love for Sale). It’s a fitting companion to Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel, out Oct. 4, which is reported to be a jukebox musical.
Harlequin is undoubtedly the “surprise project” Gaga spoke to Vogue about in her September cover story. She recorded the upcoming album this year at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu. In addition, she also cut a new pop album — dubbed “LG7” — slated to arrive in February.
“What I want my fans to know is that I’m just, like, so happy,” she told Vogue. “I’m healthy. I feel like the last time they heard from me — in this way — was Chromatica, and that album was about an absolutely horrible time for me with my mental health. I was in a really dark place … I feel like this new album, in a lot of ways, is about that time but from a place of happiness instead of misery.”
Harlequin follows “Die With a Smile,” Gaga’s duet with Bruno Mars. “Watching fans from all over the world celebrate this music has meant so much to me,” Gaga said. “To see the words of the song touch your heart and the video provoke this huge wave of dancing and fun is beautiful to watch and I’m so grateful.”
Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters Oct. 4. The film, from director Todd Phillips, stars Gaga opposite Joaquin Phoenix‘s Arthur Fleck, a.k.a. Joker. It picks up two years after the original Joker. It finds Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) spending time at Arkham, a psych ward, while awaiting trial following his savage killing of talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). As he struggles with his dual identity, he meets his love match in Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, a.k.a. Harley Quinn. The film features the pair singing together, as heard in a recent trailer.
