Lady Gaga’s highly-anticipated new album Mayhem was officially released on Friday at midnight.
And the singer, 38, could hardly contain her joy as fans greeted her at outside her New York City hotel just minutes after the album premiered on streaming platform.
Rocking a fierce raven bob haircut and bleached eyebrows, Gaga smiled while eagerly signing autographs and taking selfies.
The Grammy Award-winner, who was joined by several buff bodyguards, had on an edgy black leather look and futuristic sunglasses.
Missing from the NYC action was her hunky fiance Michael Polansky, who co-executive produced Gaga’s latest musical era along with her and Andrew Watt.
Mayhem is Gaga’s seventh studio album and it’s already being lauded a ‘masterpiece’ by both her diehard fans and critics.
Lady Gaga’s highly-anticipated new album Mayhem was officially released on Friday at midnight
And the singer, 38, could hardly contain her joy as fans greeted her at outside her New York City hotel just minutes after the album premiered on streaming platform
It’s the follow-up to Gaga’s Chromatica album, which was released in the midst of COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, and features her and Bruno Mars’ Grammy Award-winning duet, Die With A Smile.
The 14-track album sees Gaga return to her ‘core themes of sex, sleaze and celebrity,’ according to The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis, who awarded Mayhem a four star rating.
They praised the songs as ‘well-written’ with ‘intriguing musical left-turns’ while suggesting Mayhem marks a comeback of sorts for the New York-born superstar.
Variety’s Steven J. Horowitz mirrored these sentiments as they celebrated the return of ‘dance floor Gaga.’
They further described the album as one being ‘free from the pretension that often casts a shadow on [Gaga’s] catalog’ — a clear nod to her musical misfires Artpop (2013), Joanne (2017) and Chromatica (2020).
‘Mayhem is enjoyable ephemera, as tart and simple as it is sophisticated and precise,’ wrote Horowitz, who later added: ‘Gaga sounds unencumbered, free from the lofty expectations that both she and her audiences have placed on her.’
Fans were equally impressed with Mayhem as they thanked Gaga for ‘bringing life back to pop music.’
Many confidently declared that the album has ‘no skips’ while voicing their favoritism for tracks like Garden Of Eden, Zombieboy, Perfect Celebrity and Shadow Of A Man.
Rocking a fierce raven bob haircut and bleached eyebrows, Gaga smiled while eagerly signing autographs and taking selfies
The Grammy Award-winner, who was joined by several buff bodyguards, had on an edgy black leather look and futuristic sunglasses
‘This album is amazing, it is such a genre bender. Shows off how multitalented and multifaceted Gaga is,’ gushed one fan via X (formerly Twitter).
They were also left in awe over its ‘top tier’ production as they deemed Mayhem an ‘instant classic.’
Many fans expressed that Mayhem is now their ‘favorite’ Gaga album — placing it above her career-defining works, The Fame (2008) and Born This Way (2011).
Hours before Mayhem’s long-awaited release, Gaga’s in-depth interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, in which she discusses the album’s creation, premiered online.
During the intimate sit-down — held at the NYC dive bar Gaga frequented in her pre-fame days — Gaga revealed how her fiancé Michael’s unorthodox proposal inspired one of the songs on the new album.
Gaga has been dating the venture capitalist since 2019, and they eventually got engaged in April of last year.
She disclosed to Lowe that the romantic number Blade Of Grass is directly drawn from the way Michael popped the question.
He asked Gaga to marry him in an unusual manner that she had in fact suggested herself.
Mayhem is Gaga’s seventh studio album and it’s already being lauded a ‘masterpiece’ by both her diehard fans and critics
Fans were equally impressed with Mayhem as they thanked Gaga for ‘bringing life back to pop music’
She shared that Michael ‘asked me how I would want him to propose to me one day. We were in our backyard and I said: “Just take a blade of grass and wrap it around my finger,” and then I wrote Blade Of Grass.’
While penning the song, the Bad Romance hitmaker ‘remembered the way his face looked, and I remembered the grass in the backyard.’
Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, added: ‘And I remembered thinking: “He should use that really long grass that’s in the center of the backyard.”’
Michael ultimately proposed last year on April Fool’s Day, with a blade of grass as Gaga requested – though because of the date she initially assumed he was joking.
In addition to the grass ring, Michael also presented his bride-to-be with a massive eight-carat oval-cut diamond sparkler she has flaunted in the months since.
Their engagement went public that July when Gaga introduced Michael as ‘my fiancé’ to France’s prime minister at the time, Gabriel Attal.
Gaga was in Paris to perform at the Olympics, where she recreated cabaret legend Zizi Jeanmaire’s racy number Mon truc en plumes (My Thing In Feathers).
in her new interview, Gaga showered praise on Michael, saying that he helped dispel the feelings of loneliness that she had previously harbored.
‘My home used to only be the stage,’ she said. ‘It was so lonely, and also, it is so much more fun to take somebody up there with you, someone that loves you, that knows what you’re capable in all the various aspects of life.’
Missing from the NYC action was her hunky fiance Michael Polansky , who co-executive produced Gaga’s latest musical era along with her and Andrew Watt; Gaga and Michael seen in February 2025
She touchingly shared: ‘ I think that there’s nothing that can bring a tear to my eye I think more on a daily basis than knowing that I mean also so much to somebody in a way that isn’t about what I’m doing onstage, or my song, or what I’m wearing.’
Gaga dished: ‘He’s so grateful if I make him a double decaf espresso over ice, ’cause that’s his favorite, and that’s a huge part of who I am, and mattering to somebody just for being me, a girl, that means a lot.’
Another plus side of her relationship is that Michael understands her life as a pop star, including the pressures and rigors she has to undergo.
‘But also to be embraced also – in that he will say to me: “The thing you have to do, to get yourself ready to do that, is so intense.” He just wants me to be okay, and he wants to – he’s my real friend,’ Gaga said glowingly.
Michael is also involved hands-on in Gaga’s musical career, helping her pen seven of the songs that fans will be able to hear on Mayhem.
Along with celebrating the release of a new album, Gaga is also gearing up to pull double duty as host and musical guest on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
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