5 Things We Want From Lady Gaga’s Next Studio Album: Critic’s Take

Four years have passed since Lady Gaga released her 2020 dance-pop symphony, Chromatica, although that gap may feel like a yawning void to some. Between the seismic social shift caused by a global pandemic and a steady, mind-boggling stream of historic events in the intervening months since, the last four years have felt more like decades. 

It’s fitting, then, that Lady Gaga’s fans have grown more ravenous by the minute for her next studio album. The 38-year-old pop superstar packed her schedule after dropping Chromatica; she embarked on a globe-spanning tour, released a remix album (Dawn of Chromatica), a second set of jazz standards with the late legend Tony Bennett (Love For Sale), filmed a documentary of her tour (Gaga Chromatica Ball), and starred in two blockbuster films (2021’s House of Gucci and the upcoming 2024 film Joker: Folie à Deux). 

But it appears that, after nearly half-a-decade away, Mother Monster is ready to give fans some new music. At the end of her Chromatica Ball documentary, Gaga slipped in an 8-second clip of an unreleased song as the words “LG7 GAGA RETURNS” flashed across the screen — referencing her fans’ acronym for the singer’s seventh studio album. In a since-removed interview with Drag Race star Sasha Velour for the documentary, Gaga revealed that she’s been spending time in the studio lately “making a lot of music,” adding that she was “excited for Monsters to hear where I am now.” Most recently, Gaga gave her French fans a taste of even more new music following her performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, by taking to the streets in a stretch limousine and playing two more snippets from her new album. 

While Gaga has yet to confirm any specific details about the album — there’s no word yet on a release date, a title or practically anything else about the project — Billboard decided to put together a short wish list for the long-awaited LG7. From genre influences to collaborations, here are just a few things we hope to see on Lady Gaga’s next studio album: