Lady Gaga draws inspiration from her ‘Joker’ sequel character to create ‘Harlequin’ album

AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lady Gaga knew the recipe to keep her Las Vegas shows electric: start in the studio. Before each residency performance this summer, she and a group of talented musicians clocked hours-long recording sessions, capturing that spark.

The energy from their studio time flowed into Gaga’s performance and fueled the creation of her new album “Harlequin,” out Friday. The superstar was initially uncertain about the project’s direction before embracing the challenge of pushing musical boundaries — much like her fearlessly edgy character in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which opens in theaters Oct. 4.

“Harlequin” is a companion album for the film, in which Gaga stars as Lee, also better known as the unhinged villain Harley Quinn. Her character served as the driving force behind the album, which seamlessly blends jazz, funk, blues and early American music while drawing from vintage and modern pop.

“I had a really deep relationship with the character, and I just had a lot more that I wanted to say,” said the Grammy and Oscar winner, who recorded “Harlequin” between Malibu, California, and Las Vegas while was finishing her Jazz & Piano residency this summer. She came up with the album idea with her fiancé Michael Polansky, who joined her as the album’s other executive producer.

Polansky said they felt confident booking studio time after talking over music, and noticing parallels between Gaga’s split-identity movie character and her real life alter ego. He said their mission was to let the creative energy flow with jazz as the foundation of the music.

“It was important to us that the album felt cohesive, not because it fit into one style, but because the energy and personality tied it all together,” said Polansky, who called Gaga “brilliant and fearless.” “We still wanted to respect the role of genre to help listeners connect with the music, but we didn’t want it to hold the team back creatively.”

Before her two-hour-plus Las Vegas set, Gaga and the show’s drummers, trumpeters, bassists, and orchestra members hit the studio and recorded for about six hours. It became a ritual that infused the energy of her live shows into the studio.

“I was focused on pushing this sound every day and pushing ourselves to be as daring as possible,” said Gaga, who produced on all the tracks alongside Benjamin Rice, who won a Grammy for his work on “ A Star is Born ” soundtrack with her and Bradley Cooper. The album features reimagined songs like the 1930s “Get Happy” and the Black spiritual “Oh, When the Saints” along with original tracks such as “Happy Mistake” and “Folie À Deux.”

“This album was made with grace and a lot of focus and real love and dedication for Harley Quinn,” she said. “It’s also a deep love and respect for all the musicians and people that were in the studio with us every single day.”

“Harlequin” marks Gaga’s first jazz-inspired album since the death of her longtime collaborator and close friend Tony Bennett. She frequently reflects on his wise words.

“He always used to say to me, ‘If you stick with quality, you’ll never go wrong,’” recalled Gaga, who had shared the stage with Bennett and collaborated on two albums: 2014’s “Cheek to Cheek” and 2021’s “Love For Sale,” which both won Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album. She said Bennett, who died at 96 in 2023, would have celebrated someone like herself who was excited to explore new horizons of “what jazz can mean today and what music can be.”

“I wanted to make a really high quality album that has sophisticated musicianship,” she said. “Tony is the anchor in a lot of ways. No matter how much you may drift from the classic old school approach that these songs can take, as long as there were moments where we returned to the study and discipline of jazz, it kind of anchors the whole record.”

Along with her companion album, Gaga said she expects to release a studio album in February. It’ll be her first since 2020’s “Chromatica,” which featured the Grammy-winning song “Rain on Me” with Ariana Grande.

“I’m finished with that record,” she said. “It’s all a part of each other, although the music is vastly different.”

Gaga’s happiness with her life has sparked her musical creativity. She was excited to get into the studio and collaborate with people she “loves and respects.”

“This is probably the most clear I have felt in about a decade for myself just personally,” she said. “I feel more on my game with this music than I have in a really long time. It’s one of the reasons I’m so grateful to my partner, Michael, for his creative collaboration and support in all this.”

Gaga added that “When you’re feeling clear and healthy and happy, I feel like that’s when your art can really fly.”