Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars share surprisingly low-key (for them) "Die With A Smile"

If Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars are known for anything, it’s not their subtlety. Even at her most vulnerable, Gaga expresses pain with a full-throated wail, while Mars has spent the last decade shamelessly, but effectively, recreating the aesthetics of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Both of them make hits, the kinds of songs that you can hear both in a grocery store or a packed bar on a night out. Their new team-up “Die With A Smile,” which released at midnight, makes sense—there is hardly anyone else currently with their track record of high performance. It’s a bit disappointing, then, that there isn’t more going on here. 

In 2024, pop music has largely fallen into two camps: (faux) country, and big, daffy, gloriously dumb near-novelty songs (think “Espresso,” “Guess,” “HOT TO GO!”). For some reason, Gaga and Mars have opted not to make a track in the latter category. But they didn’t really make one for the first, either; though “Die With A Smile” does take some visual nods from 70s-era country kitsch, they land on a big, dramatic rock ballad somewhere in the middle of Unorthodox Jukebox, A Star Is Born, and Joanne. (The final album, of course, being the last time Gaga trotted out a cowboy hat—for unclear reasons, given that she grew up in New York City.) 

“Die With A Smile” is certainly competent—it would be near impossible for it not to be. But the track seems destined to fade into the background: of a TikTok, a car ride, a grocery aisle. Gaga herself plays much more of a supporting role to Mars’ starting melody. Even the four-minute clip, which sees the two of them singing the song to each other and not much else, is hard to get through without something else grabbing your attention before it ends. (Though Gaga does offer some fairly hilarious prop work with her cigarette.) Of course, releasing it now serves another purpose; the setting of the video recalls the few glimpses we’ve seen of Gaga’s Harleen Quinzel so far in the Joker: Folie À Deux trailers. But it’s unclear whether this song has anything to do with the film, or whether it will even be on her elusive forthcoming album. Maybe it’ll end up on one of his albums. Or, maybe, we’ll forget all about this in a week.