Pop icon Lady Gaga has spilt some major tea about this popular MAYHEM track.
On 7 March, the music icon dropped her highly anticipated seventh solo studio album.
Chronicling Gaga’s return to her pop roots, the record’s standard edition features 14 tracks, including her hit singles’ Die With A Smile’, Disease’ and ‘Abracadabra’ – the latter of which became her highest-charting solo debut on Spotify.
Since its release, MAYHEM has received universal acclaim from fans and critics, with many praising the album for its dynamic production, authentic lyrical content, and Gaga’s soaring vocals.
While the record continues to captivate Little Monsters worldwide, it almost featured a very different tracklist.
During her recent appearance on the Las Cultristas podcast, Gaga revealed that she almost didn’t include the feel-good track, ‘How Bad Do U Want Me.’
“I’m so happy you did because it’s like a throwback for you because it’s very pop, but I was like, I hear a high school girl singing this. We can see and hear the character in this,” co-host Matt Rogers exclaimed in response.
When asked about the creative process for ‘How Bad Do U Want Me,’ Gaga revealed that she came up with the concept at home alongside fiancé Michael Polansky.
“I started it first, and he heard me singing it, and he walks in from the kitchen, and he goes, ‘Is that about me?’ and I was like, ‘No,'” she said before laughing.
“And then he came on in, and we started to finish it together. You know, that song embodies a feeling that I’ve had probably my whole life, which is that I always felt archatyped as the bad girl.
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“It’s why the lyric is kind of funny, ‘you like my hair / my ripped up jeans’ because that’s like so stereotypical, the girl with ripped jeans is bad. It’s so kind of silly and humorous.”
Gaga went on to say that she always felt “shame” and “at war” with this feeling of being interested in someone who’s “actually longing for a good girl, but they’re stuck“ with her.
“And I’m who they really want, but like we’re in this like three-way relationship and there is no actual good girl, but the good girl in their head, and they’re kind of comparing me the whole time,“ she continued.
The ‘Bad Romance’ singer also revealed that despite ‘How Bad Do U Want Me‘ being a “fun pop song,“ she cried while writing it.
“I have some voice recordings of it somewhere that I have, like from the original, maybe I’ll just drop those at some point,“ she teased.
“I also was not sure I should put that on the record, and Michael was like, ‘You have to. Your fans are going to love that song.'”
When co-host Bowen Yang asked about her hesitancy to include it on MAYHEM, Gaga revealed that she gets “a weird reaction when things are super pop.”
“I felt this way about ‘Just Dance.‘ Thank God I didn’t listen to myself then,“ she added.
Fortunately, Gaga’s emotional journey with ‘How Bad Do U Want Me‘ wasn’t in vain.
Following MAYHEM’s release, fans praised the feel-good track for its heartwarming lyrics and electric 80s-inspired production.
“My fave from Lady Gaga’s Mayhem album has to be “How Bad Do You Want Me?”. It reminds me of Yaz/Yazoo’s “Only You“ from the 80s. Love it!“ one listener tweeted.
Another fan wrote: “I can’t stop listening to How Bad Do You Want Me by Lady Gaga. It is like crack for my ears.”
Check out Lady Gaga’s full Las Cultristas podcast interview below.
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