The Musician Insight

Facing our inner demons

A tortured track

The dance/pop days of Lady Gaga are coming back with the new single Disease, a track going deep into the star’s personal issues.

If one word could describe this song, it would be tortured: through the instrumental and vocal technique, we have a depiction of suffering, something that Gaga already explored on 911 (2020). The singer’s harsh, almost spoken way of singing serves the lyrics well, exploring feelings of powerlessness.

The track opens with the sentences “There are no more tears to […] runnin’ out of medicine”, representing Gaga’s critical health condition. Rapidly, the narrative shifts: “Poison on the inside, I could be your antidote tonight”, where the singer understands that what she fears, could be her strength. Isolation and trauma are also very present, with Lady Gaga confessing on being frozen by past events: “Plagued with all your memories. You reach out, and no one’s there”.

But Disease is not “just” a story of coping with traumas, it is also a liberating track with the star expressing her power through her sexuality: “Lay you down like one, two, three. Eyes roll back in ecstasy”.

Through this new single, Gaga portrays the complexities of a woman’s life and her way to power through it all: continuing to be her authentic self, no matter what.

Photo © Jasmine Safaeian