September 27, 2024 – Los Angeles, CA – 13-time Grammy Award-winner Lady Gaga today debuted Harlequin, a surprise album inspired by the character Harley Quinn from Joker: Folie à Deux (ahead of the film’s wide release on October 4). Out now via Interscope Records, the album was co-executive produced entirely by Lady Gaga and Michael Polansky, taking listeners on a genre-defying journey that captures the essence of one of pop culture’s most iconic and chaotic figures. Gaga announced the album via her Instagram this week, teasing fans with glimpses of the project, including a newly released visual for the track "The Joker,"
Affectionately dubbed LG6.5, Harlequin is an exploration of the raw, emotional complexity of a woman who thrives in chaos, a genre-defying force who cannot be contained. Just like Harley Quinn and Gaga herself, this album is unpredictable, full of contrasts, and unapologetically bold.
Notably, Harlequin marks Lady Gaga’s first jazz-inspired album since the passing of her longtime collaborator Tony Bennett. The album represents a step forward in bringing classic standards into the modern era, as if these timeless songs were reimagined through the lens of all the music that followed. Gaga breathes new life into these beloved tracks, combining her deep love of jazz with a fresh, avant-garde approach, honoring the past while pushing it into uncharted territory.
What makes Harlequin unique is the way it floats effortlessly between all musical styles, pulling from whatever sounds felt right in the room.
This is an album made in the purest sense, reminiscent of a time when musicians simply created the records they wanted to make. An album meant to be heard front-to-back, all at once.
Harlequin was created, performed and recorded between Malibu and the famed Palms studio in Las Vegas while Gaga was finishing her Jazz & Piano residency in the summer of 2024. Gaga and Polansky brought together a hand-picked roster of world-class musicians, collaborators, and arrangers to craft an album that captures the spirit of Harley Quinn in every note. Gaga produced on all tracks alongside longtime collaborator Benjamin Rice. Whether it’s a crooning ballad over surf guitar, or an intense anthem set to the rhythm of war drums and clashing trash cans, every track bursts with energy and emotion.
As diverse and complex as the character and woman that inspired it, Harlequin is an album that celebrates a figure who thrives on danger, who lives for the undefinable, and who embraces the beautiful chaos of her own dreams. This is Gaga like you’ve never heard her before. This is Harlequin.