Lady Gaga Transforms ‘Disease’ Into Stripped-Back Rock Ballad With ‘The Poison’ Live Performance

Lady Gaga is continuing to spread her new single “Disease,” with the 38-year-old pop superstar dropping a live performance video that showcases the song in a whole new light Wednesday (Nov. 20).

In a five-minute clip titled “Disease (The Poison Live),” Gaga wails over a reverberating electric guitar. Without the dark dance-pop production featured on the original studio version of the track — which dropped in October ahead of the star’s February-slated seventh studio album — the raw power of her vocals cut through even more than usual as she belted, “I could play the doctor, I can cure your disease/ If you were a sinner, I could make you believe/ Lay you down like one, two, three/ Eyes roll back in ecstasy.”

The new video comes exactly a week after the 13-time Grammy winner dropped a much different live performance of “Disease.” In the “The Antidote” version of the track, she subbed in acoustic guitar and piano and lets the softer tone of her voice shine.

For both new versions, Gaga also shared the live recordings on streaming services. “Disease” and all of its incarnations follows both the star’s Billboard Global 200-dominating duet with Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile,” and her Joker 2 concept album Harlequin, which arrived in August and September, respectively.

Her next project — a follow-up to 2020’s Billboard 200-topping Chromatica, the title of which has not yet been announced — is expected to find Mother Monster reclaiming her pop music throne, an undertaking she pursued at the suggestion of fiancé Michael Polansky.

“Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record,” she told Vogue in September. “He was like, ‘Babe. I love you. You need to make pop music.'”

“There’s a lot of pain associated with this adventure,” she’d added at the time. “And when I start to explore that pain it can bring out another side to my artistry.”

Watch Gaga’s “Disease (The Poison Live)” performance below.