Lady Gaga has teamed up with Tim Burton in the new spooky music video of The Dead Dance, which was created for Netflix’s Wednesday.
The music legend, 39, made her first creative collaboration with the visionary director, 67, producing the creepy clip alongside Michael Polansky and Natalie Testa.
Coinciding with her hotly-anticipated guest appearance on the hit series – which is also produced by Burton – the Judas singer is captured on a wall surrounded by baby dolls before she launches into her dead dance, awakening the dolls.
Gaga was then joined by masked backup dancers for the chorus as day segues into night, all while the dolls bop their heads along to the upbeat tune.
The haunting music video was filmed on Mexico’s Isla de las Munecas, an island located amid the channels of Xochimilco in Mexico City, notable for its variety of dolls in different styles and colors.
Shifting between black-and-white and bursts of vivid color, The Dead Dance music video weaves eerie imagery of dolls with Gaga’s singularly original performance.
Lady Gaga has teamed up with Tim Burton in the new spooky music video of The Dead Dance, which was created for Netflix’s Wednesday
The music legend, 39, made her first creative collaboration with the visionary director, 67, producing the creepy clip alongside Michael Polansky and Natalie Testa
The Bloody Mary hitmaker – whose song went viral already in the first season – revealed her latest project: ‘The inspiration for The Dead Dance was a breakup, and it was all about the way that we sometimes feel when it’s over; how a relationship ending can kill our ability to feel hopeful about love.
‘It’s got this really cool, funky beat underneath it.
‘And that is when the song becomes not just about the relationship; it becomes about having fun with your friends when yo’ve been through something tough and amazing. I can’t wait for people to listen to it.’
News of the video for The Dead Dance emerged in early July, when outlets reported that she had been spotted filming something with Burton on the Island of the Dolls in Xochimilco.
The video arrived in tandem with the release of the second half of Wednesday, which arrived on Netflix at midnight on September 3, 2025.
In the much-loved spooky series, the American star shows up in episode six as Rosaline Rotwood, a Nevermore teacher in the 1960s with psychic abilities.
According to the show’s music supervisors, Gaga connected with the Wednesday team following season one and wrote The Dead Dance specifically for the series.
The dance in Wednesday was filmed with a placeholder track that had a similar BPM and the sequence was kept secret for over a year before The Dead Dance song was swapped in.
Coinciding with her hotly-anticipated guest appearance on the hit series – which is also produced by Burton – the Judas singer is captured on a wall surrounded by baby dolls before she launches into her dead dance, awakening the dolls
Gaga was then joined by masked backup dancers for the chorus as day segues into night, all while the dolls bop their heads along to the upbeat tune
The haunting music video was filmed on Mexico’s Isla de las Munecas, an island located amid the channels of Xochimilco in Mexico City, notable for its variety of dolls in different styles
The Bloody Mary hitmaker revealed: ‘The inspiration for The Dead Dance was a breakup, and it was all about the way that we sometimes feel when it’s over’
Early reactions have praised The Dead Dance as both ‘haunting’ and an ‘electro pop banger,’ with ‘a bouncy 1980s electro pop vibe, propelled by funhouse keyboards and bright drum machine beats’, said Billboard.
Rolling Stone called it a ‘soaring pop track’ with a ‘serious dance-ready beat, while NME highlighted the spooky, funky energy, pointing to its ‘infectious bassline, ‘Thriller’-esque synths and licks of electric guitar.’
Colleen Atwood designed the costumes for the video while Parris Goebel epically choreographed.
