That is, until they caught wind that Lady Gaga was working on last year's "Joker: Folie à Deux" film, and Mars thought the idea could be a good pitch for either that project or Gaga's accompanying "Harlequin" album. "He was such a genius for pulling that out of the back of his subconscious memory because of the timing of that movie, which is also how Lady Gaga came into his mind as a collaborator," recalls Fauntleroy. "Then when we found out that wasn't gonna be a thing, he had already kind of started the ball rolling because the power of Bruno compels you."

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/lady-gaga-bruno-mars-die-with-a-smile-making-of-song-1236599489/

But i was told....

The initial demo of 'Die With A Smile' was originally never going to be finished.. until Lady Gaga began working on Joker and her new music, which inspired Bruno Mars to reach out to her!

"The rough draft was swiftly abandoned, relegated to the demos pile, and presumably left to be forgotten. That is, until they caught wind that Lady Gaga was working on last year's "Joker: Folie à Deux" film, and Mars thought the idea could be a good pitch for either that project or Gaga's accompanying album."

THANK YOU LADY GAGA. The only reason DWAS exists.

Edited Thursday at 10:54 PM2 days by Darkgalord

a true liddos sophie's choice.... deal with JFAD to get one of the biggest hits of all time, or never have Joker and DWAS

so

Never listen to the crazies OP

Oops

There can be 100 people in the room and 99 don't believe in you, but you just need one.

The way this song was ALWAYS meant for Mayhem

i hate this damn song, it has bruno written all over it.

everything on mayhem stomps on it

It's clear this is just a made up PR story by Gaga and her team to try and justify why she added the song to her album.

1 minute ago, Claymore said:

The way this song was ALWAYS meant for Mayhem

Sure, that is why Gaga herself referred to it as a stand alone single.

THANK YOU LADY GAGA

1 minute ago, Yes, AND said:

It's clear this is just a made up PR story by Gaga and her team to try and justify why she added the song to her album.

Do you really think anyone outside of us terminally online gays cares about this?

Whoops.

The initial demo of 'Die With A Smile' was originally never going to be finished.. until Lady Gaga began working on Joker and her new music, which inspired Bruno Mars to reach out to her!

"The rough draft was swiftly abandoned, relegated to the demos pile, and presumably left to be forgotten. That is, until they caught wind that Lady Gaga was working on last year's "Joker: Folie à Deux" film, and Mars thought the idea could be a good pitch for either that project or Gaga's accompanying album."

"They were already connected to Andrew Watt, who was working with Gaga on her sixth album, "Mayhem," and Mars invited them to come to his Malibu studio after

hanging with Watt in Las Vegas. When the pair arrived with Gaga's fiancé Michael Polansky late one night in early 2024, Mars played the bones of "Smile" for Gaga, who wanted to start work on the song right away.

Both Fauntleroy and D'Mile describe the session as particularly unusual for an artist of her caliber, as they're used to previewing an already recorded demo for a musician over speakers.

"She was like, 'Let's go to the piano, says Fauntleroy. "I knew she could play the piano, but watching her actually sit down

like a musician and learn the chords, so much so that she actually asked for a pen and paper and wrote the chords down... This is unheard of. She learned the ******* song, dude, right there. And they were performing, singing it together. And that's when I should have known it was going to be something special."

From there, Watt and Gaga took what they had worked on and recut her parts of the song, which D'Mile says he fine-tuned with Watt over the next few weeks. In August 2024, Gaga and Mars released "Smile" to instant success - it crowned the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks and the fastest song to reach a billion Spotify streams.

Just now, Yes, AND said:

Sure, that is why Gaga herself referred to it as a stand alone single.

It was always meant for HER, and as HER song she put it on her OWN Grammy nominated album

oh uh

4 minutes ago, Yes, AND said:

It's clear this is just a made up PR story by Gaga and her team to try and justify why she added the song to her album.

THANK YOU LADY GAGA

the way no one actually cares about this but this is like 9/11 to OGHs

10 minutes ago, WildAmerican said:

a true liddos sophie's choice.... deal with JFAD to get one of the biggest hits of all time, or never have Joker and DWAS

She escaped JFAD relatively unscathed, I think it was ultimately worth it to get one of the biggest hits of the decade out of the process.

ot: this smash

6 minutes ago, Yes, AND said:

It's clear this is just a made up PR story by Gaga and her team to try and justify why she added the song to her album.