Harlequin

Development

Following the completion of The Chromatica Ball (2022), Lady Gaga took a step back from social media and promotional activities while she focused on preparing her role as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Harley Quinn) opposite Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck (the Joker) in the American musical thriller film Joker: Folie à Deux (2024). In a lengthy Instagram post made on June 16, 2023, Gaga shared that she had been spending alone time "healing" while editing her concert film Gaga Chromatica Ball (2024), filming Joker: Folie à Deux, and creating music for a "special project". Throughout the rest of the year and into 2024, she occasionally teased upcoming music via social media, sharing photos from within the studios where she was working and offering insights into the process.

At the film's red carpet premiere in London, England, on September 25, 2024, Gaga explained that she created Harlequin because she wanted to continue exploring Lee after filming Joker: Folie à Deux. She said the album's diverse musical styles reflected the character's complexity and her desire to define herself on her own terms. Harlequin marked Gaga's first album of jazz standards without Tony Bennett, following their collaborations on Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale (2021). Gaga said she felt Bennett's presence throughout the recording process and believed that, although he was not fond of rock and roll, he would have appreciated her experimentation with the genre and her willingness to take musical risks.

Gaga and her fiancé, Michael Polansky, conceived Harlequin together, marking their first musical project as collaborators. According to Polansky, discussions about the parallels between Lee's divided identity and Gaga's public persona encouraged them to book studio time. He told the Associated Press that jazz formed the basis of the album, but wanted the songs to fit together through their energy and personality, regardless of genre. Gaga recalled discussing with Polansky how Harley Quinn might seek to benefit from the Joker's fame or take revenge on him for breaking her heart. They used these ideas to develop the album around the character.

While filming Joker: Folie à Deux, Gaga restrained her usual vocal technique, an approach Rolling Stone characterized as having to "unlearn singing". For Harlequin, Gaga said she used both her own singing style and elements of Lee's voice. She pointed to the opening of "That's Entertainment" as an example of Lee's "childlike immaturity", contrasting it with the "much softer" and "extremely nostalgic" vocals later in the song. She added that the album's vocals are intentionally genre-defying, an approach she said "makes sense for Harley Quinn" and reflected the artistic freedom she experienced while making the record.

Production and composition

Production

Harlequin was recorded during summer 2024 while Gaga was completing her Jazz & Piano residency in Las Vegas. Her accompanying musicians, including members of the rhythm and brass sections, spent approximately six hours in the recording studio before residency performances. Recording sessions took place at Dragonfly Creek Recording Studio and Shangri-La in Malibu, California, The Sound Factory at the Palms and Studio A in Las Vegas, Nevada, and EastWest Studios in Los Angeles.

Gaga co-produced the album's first 12 tracks with Benjamin Rice, who also worked as a recording engineer. BloodPop additionally co-produced "Happy Mistake", while David Campbell and Jason Ruder co-produced the closing track, "That's Life", with Gaga. Campbell also arranged and conducted the latter song, and Serban Ghenea mixed the album. Gaga and Polansky served as the album's co-executive producers. They were also credited as co-writers on four reworked standards: Good Morning", "Get Happy", "Oh, When the Saints", and "If My Friends Could See Me Now. The pair also selected the songs for the album together.

The sessions featured a recurring group of musicians, including trumpeter Brian Newman, guitarist Tim Stewart, bassist Daniel Foose, saxophonist Steve Kortyka, drummer Donald Barrett, and pianist and organist Alex Smith. Several were also credited as co-arrangers alongside Gaga, Rice and Polansky. Gaga said she prepared for recording standards by singing them many times beforehand. Discussions with the band following Newman's late-night performances in Las Vegas introduced a shared interest in surf punk, influencing their approach to guitar arrangements. Gaga also recalled suggesting that Rice use trash cans as drums, introducing unconventional percussion to the recordings.

Songs

The album opens with "Good Morning", originally performed by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in the 1939 film Babes in Arms. Gaga's rendition adds a doo-wop introduction and a rewritten verse referring to sleeping inmates and a prison warden, accompanied by an upbeat big band arrangement of brass, piano and double bass. "Get Happy (2024)", originally introduced by Ruth Etting in the 1930 Broadway revue The Nine-Fifteen Revue, was later performed by Garland in the film Summer Stock (1950). Gaga emphasizes the song's spiritual undertones in an interpretation that Vulture compared to Ella Fitzgerald's, with a lively horn section and bent guitar notes. She also altered the lyrics to refer to Arthur Fleck, explaining that the changes contrast his violent actions with the song's celebratory mood.

"Oh, When the Saints", adapted from the traditional spiritual "When the Saints Go Marching In", sets the familiar melody against a funk beat, with several key changes, an electric guitar solo and an extended big-band ending. On the following track, "World on a String", Gaga takes the 1932 standard in a rock-influenced direction. Her restrained singing is accompanied by tremolo guitar, organ and reverberating drums, some of which were recorded on trash cans. Thomas H. Green of The Arts Desk compared her smoky vocals to those of Amy Winehouse. Two other covers move from quiet introductions to more elaborate arrangements. "If My Friends Could See Me Now", from the 1966 musical Sweet Charity, opens with acoustic guitar and tentative singing before giving way to brass, scat singing and increasingly forceful vocals. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine noted a similar progression in "That's Entertainment", originally from the 1953 film The Band Wagon, which also begins quietly before becoming more theatrical. Gaga said the opening was intended to evoke Lee's "childlike immaturity", likening it to a teenager singing in a school play. Later in the song, she adopts what she called a "much softer" and "extremely nostalgic" vocal style. "Smile" takes a more subdued approach, with piano, breathy vocals and muted brass. Descending guitar notes and a French spoken passage also feature in the arrangement. The song originated as an instrumental theme composed by Charlie Chaplin for the 1936 film Modern Times.

For "The Joker", a song from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd that Shirley Bassey recorded in 1968, Gaga uses a rock arrangement with distorted guitars, heavy percussion and growling vocals. She said that she and Polansky wanted the performance to convey Harley Quinn's defiance, including her belief that she could take on the Joker's identity. The gospel-influenced "Gonna Build a Mountain", from the 1961 musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, builds toward one of the album's most forceful vocal performances. Gaga takes a lighter approach to "Close to You", the Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition popularized by the Carpenters. Her version trades the group's gentle piano accompaniment for a walking bass line, a clip-clopping rhythm and prominent trumpet, lending the song a playful mood. The closing track, "That's Life", retains the character of the standard popularized by Frank Sinatra, with Gaga delivering the lyrics in an emphatic, theatrical style.

Release and artwork

Gaga posted an image on September 20, 2024, containing a "grainy" red background with white text reading "I'm ready for my interview". She later uploaded four more "cryptic" images on Instagram, three of which included sound, prompting speculation among fans that the posts were related to her seventh studio album or Joker: Folie à Deux. On September 23, billboards displaying "LG 6.5" and "LG Six.Five" appeared in New York City and Los Angeles, further fueling speculation about a new release. On September 24, Gaga revealed the album to be titled Harlequin and shared the cover artwork via Instagram. In the same post, she referred to the project as a "companion album" to Joker: Folie à Deux, shared the tracklist on the back of a milk carton, and linked to pre-order the album's CD, vinyl, and digital formats on her web store. Gaga explained that she designated the project "LG6.5" because it was not her next pop studio album, but a release that occupied an intermediate position and blurred the boundaries of pop music. She considered it both a Lady Gaga record and an extension of her portrayal of Harley Quinn. Harlequin was released on September 27, 2024.

The album's cover and accompanying photographs were taken by London-based photographer Scarlett Carlos Clarke. Gaga later revealed that the photoshoot took place in a run-down apartment in Las Vegas while she was finishing the album. The setting reminded her of her early years living in an apartment on New York's Lower East Side, where she had first met some of the musicians involved in the record nearly two decades earlier. The standard cover depicts Gaga standing in a shower with orange hair, wearing a white dress and a flotation device around her neck, while her makeup runs down her face from the water. The artwork was shortlisted for the 2024 Best Art Vinyl award, which recognizes achievements in record sleeve design.

An alternate cover used for an exclusive vinyl sold on Gaga's web store shows her lying on a bed in a messy bedroom, facing the ceiling. The photograph contains several references to her earlier career, including a picture of frequent collaborator Tony Bennett; the disco ball bra she wore in the music video for "Just Dance"; and a broken VHS tape labeled "Joanne World Tour". The back cover of the alternate vinyl edition features another photograph of the bedroom, with the 1862 painting Stańczyk by Polish painter Jan Matejko hanging on the wall. Its inclusion attracted attention in Poland, with the National Museum in Warsaw, which houses the painting, expressing surprise at its appearance and joking that there was "only one real Joker". A second alternate cover depicts Gaga standing on a bed in a white top, with the album's title written in red across the photograph. The artwork was used for limited-edition vinyl releases.

Promotion

On September 25, 2024, Gaga announced via her social media a collaboration with the Louvre Museum in promotion for the album. The post featured an 80-second preview of "The Joker" set to an accompanying visual that shows Gaga exploring the museum at night. Towards the end of the clip, she uses red lipstick to draw a Joker-inspired grin on the Mona Lisa. The clip also promoted the "Figures Du Fou" exhibition that opened at the Louvre on October 16, 2024.

After the premiere of Joker: Folie A Deux in London, Gaga hosted a "secret" intimate listening party where she played Harlequin from beginning to end and also danced and sang with her fans. On October 1, 2024, she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a white harlequin ensemble and performed "Happy Mistake". Consequence's Eddie Fu said it was "another case of Gaga's live performance topping the studio recording", while Stereogum's Tom Breihan felt she gave the track "the full stadium treatment".

Concert film

In December 2025, Gaga announced Lady Gaga in Harlequin Live: One Night Only, a concert film centered on Harlequin. Co-directed and executive produced by Gaga and Polansky, it was filmed on September 30, 2024, during an intimate, fan-only performance at The Belasco in Los Angeles, where she performed the album in full. The film debuted at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on December 18, 2025, before premiering on Gaga's YouTube channel on December 24. Its production design drew from the album's alternative artworks, with a stage resembling a dimly lit, disheveled studio apartment complete with crooked blinds and an unmade mattress. The special received positive reviews from Variety and Decider, with both praising Gaga's compelling, high-intensity performance and the renewed conviction she brought to her Harlequin material.

Critical reception

Harlequin received positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Harlequin received a score of 73 based on ten reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? compiled eleven reviews and gave the album an average of 6.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Many critics praised the lively, uninhibited mood of Harlequin and Gaga's theatrical performances. Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic labelled it a fresh, "no-skips effort" in Gaga's discography. Robin Murray from Clash described Harlequin as "unique, fun, and wildly over-the-top", and dubbed Gaga a "360 artist for the modern era." Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield rated the album three and a half stars out of five, praising Gaga's theatrical presence and singling out the original track "Happy Mistake" as the album's highlight. Sputnikmusic's Dakota West Foss viewed Harlequin as a return to Gaga's eccentric, uninhibited style, praising the exuberant arrangements of "Good Morning" and "Oh, When the Saints" alongside the tenderness of quieter tracks such as "Smile" and "Happy Mistake". Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times praised Gaga for revitalizing familiar standards by combining the theatricality of show tunes with Harley Quinn's unpredictability, singling out the blues-influenced rendition of "Oh, When the Saints" and the contrasting intimacy of "Smile" and "Close to You".

Other reviewers focused on the album's narrative and Gaga's vocal performances. Mary Siroky of Consequence viewed Harlequin as a story in three acts. In her interpretation, the album begins with confidence and romance, takes a darker turn, and ends on a note of recovery. She considered "That's Entertainment" as a turning point in this progression, although she found "The Joker" too heavy-handed in its treatment of the character. Matthew Dwyer of PopMatters interpreted Harlequin as an exploration of Gaga's relationship with fame and her public persona, arguing that its reinterpretations of classic songs reinforced her identity as a performer. He considered "That's Entertainment" central to the album's themes, emphasizing the relationship between Gaga's personal identity and her theatrical performances. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine felt that Harlequin provided an outlet for Gaga's theatricality, praising the grit of her rendition of "The Joker" and the powerful vocals of "Gonna Build a Mountain", although he criticized her tendency toward exaggerated vocal performances and found "Close to You" lacking in vulnerability. Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today praised both original songs, particularly Gaga's vocal performance on "Happy Mistake", which grows more intense as the song progresses. She also commended Gaga's phrasing on "That's Life".

Commercial performance

In the United States, Harlequin debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200, with 25,000 album-equivalent units sold in its first week, including 16,000 from physical sales and digital downloads, allowing it to debut at number three on the Top Album Sales chart. The album marked the largest sales debut for a jazz release since Love for Sale (2021), Gaga's collaborative album with Bennett, which opened with 41,000 units. Additionally, Harlequin accumulated 11.3 million on-demand streams, representing the highest streaming total for a jazz album since Bewitched (2023) by Laufey. The album also debuted at number one on both the Top Jazz Albums and Top Traditional Jazz Albums charts, becoming Gaga's third album to lead both rankings, following Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale. In Canada, the album entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number 66.

In the United Kingdom, Harlequin initially peaked at number 59 on the UK Albums Chart upon release, before climbing to number 11 following its release on physical formats. It also topped the Jazz & Blues Albums chart. Across Europe, Harlequin reached the top ten in several territories, peaking in the top five in Scotland, Switzerland, and Spain, as well as within the top ten in Austria, Germany, and France, where it also topped the French Jazz Albums chart. The album additionally entered the top 20 in Croatia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and Belgium Wallonia. It also charted in other European markets, including Greece, Finland, Ireland, Belgium Flanders, and the Netherlands.

In Japan, it debuted at number 39 on the Oricon Albums Chart, and peaked at number 37 on both the Oricon Digital Albums and Billboard Japan Hot Albums charts. In Australia, it reached number 40 on the Australian Albums Chart, while in New Zealand it peaked at number 28 on the Official Top 40 Albums Chart.

Accolades

Harlequin was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, marking her third nomination in the category following Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale (2021), both of which won.

Track listing

Note

^[p] signifies a primary and vocal producer.

Personnel

Credits adapted from album liner notes.

Musicians

Technical