Joanne is the fourth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga and her fifth overall. It was released on October 21, 2016, by Streamline and Interscope Records. Gaga, Mark Ronson and BloodPop handled its production. Other collaborators include Kevin Parker, Emile Haynie, Jeff Bhasker and Josh Homme. Musically, Joanne is a stripped-down, dance-pop, soft rock and Americana record with country elements, with a focus on Gaga's vocals. Lyrically, the album delves into the theme of family and life's emotions; the death of her aunt, Joanne Stefani Germanotta, deeply influenced the record. The singer's experience acting on the television series American Horror Story also influenced its creative process.
Joanne topped the album charts in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States while reaching the top five in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Three singles were released: "Perfect Illusion", "Million Reasons" and the title track. "Perfect Illusion" was released as the album's lead single on September 9, 2016, and reached number one in France, while "Million Reasons" reached number four in the United States. A piano version of the title track was released to radio in selected territories as the album's third single. The album received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised Gaga's musical direction, vocals, production and lyrical content. However, some critics found that the album lacked cohesiveness. Joanne was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. "Million Reasons" and "Joanne" were nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance in separate years, for which the latter won the award.
The release and promotion of the album marked a softening of Gaga's image, who took on a more singer-songwriter oriented look in promotional materials, wearing a pink, wide-brimmed cowgirl hat, vintage denim and pastel colors, evoking the 1970s. She promoted the album with her Dive Bar Tour, a promotional concert in dive bars in the United States, and the Joanne World Tour, which began in August 2017 and ended in February 2018. Gaga also did some television appearances, and headlined the Super Bowl LI halftime show and the 2017 Coachella Festival. That same year, she released a documentary film, titled Gaga: Five Foot Two, showing the production of the album and her halftime performance.
Background and development Lady Gaga's third studio album Artpop was released in November 2013 to mixed reviews. It debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, and had sold 2.5 million copies as of July 2014. Gaga split from her longtime manager Troy Carter in late 2013. By June 2014, she and new manager Bobby Campbell had joined Artist Nation, the artist management division of Live Nation Entertainment. Gaga confessed to NME that she had considered quitting music altogether because she felt depressed about herself and "wasn't able to see my own ability or my own talent". The ambivalent reception to Artpop, controversies surrounding the album and Born This Way (2011) and negative press reactions led Gaga's management to come up with an image change for her. Along with a more subdued appearance in the media, Gaga emphasized her vocal prowess. A tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music at the 87th Academy Awards, where she sang a medley of songs from the film, was critically lauded. She and Tony Bennett also released Cheek to Cheek, an album of jazz duets, in September 2014 to generally favorable reviews. It debuted atop the Billboard 200, becoming Gaga's third consecutive number-one album in the United States, and won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Gaga also starred in American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016), the fifth season of the American anthology television series American Horror Story, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. At the awards ceremony, the singer confirmed she would be releasing her fifth studio album later in 2016, and was working on the logistics and changing her image. Throughout most of 2015 and 2016, Gaga teased fans about the album's creative and recording processes on her social media accounts. She was seen collaborating with longtime producer RedOne, as well as new collaborators like Giorgio Moroder, Mark Ronson and Nile Rodgers.
Writing and recording
According to Gaga, she wanted "fans to be surprised [by the album] ... it's a wonderful, soul-searching experience. And it's very unlike [Artpop] in that way". In an interview with Billboard, producer RedOne said the singer was mentally in a "cleaner" state of mind, hearkening back to her earlier days, which he felt was beneficial. Gaga and Ronson served as Joannes executive producers. The two grew up near each other on the Upper East Side of New York City, and had collaborated on Wale's song "Chillin" (2009). They reunited in late 2015, when Gaga presented the song "Angel Down" to Ronson at a studio in London. Later, the duo worked for six months in Rick Rubin's Shangri-La recording studio in Malibu, while he was between projects. On Gaga and Ronson's first day at Shangri-La, they wrote the song "Joanne". Ronson encouraged Gaga to "write [lyrics] about whatever was happening in her life or on her mind".
Recording continued until the album's final mastering session. Ronson described Gaga as closely involved in the recording process, saying that she was "happiest when she's sitting at a piano barking orders at the drummer". He later said that the music recorded with Gaga was "some of my favorite music I've really ever worked on. It's incredible – I love it. ... I can't wait until you can hear it because the music speaks for itself". Ronson also hinted at the involvement of Kevin Parker, frontman for the Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala, which BBC Music later confirmed.
Many prominent musicians make guest appearances on Joanne. Gaga invited Father John Misty to play drums on the record. Ronson invited Josh Homme to play guitar on the song "John Wayne" because of his work for the band Queens of the Stone Age; in addition, Homme drummed and was a co-producer. Ronson also invited Beck to collaborate on the album, resulting in the song "Dancin' in Circles". Gaga, a longtime fan of Beck's, was initially starstruck at working with him. Gaga and Florence Welch developed the concept of their duet, "Hey Girl", during a meeting at New York's Electric Lady Studios. According to Gaga, the song's theme demanded a female collaborator. She selected Welch, calling her "if not the best, one of the greatest vocalists in the world".
Ronson crafted the album's organic sound by recruiting musicians he had previously worked with on projects for Rufus Wainwright and Amy Winehouse. He credited producer BloodPop with bringing the album "into the modern era". During the album's production, Gaga collaborated with Elton John; their sessions resulted in a song titled "Room in My Heart", which did not make the album's final cut. In 2017, Gaga released her documentary film Gaga: Five Foot Two on Netflix, which included scenes of the singer and Ronson shot during the album's recording sessions.
Themes and influences
Family is an underlying theme on Joanne. Gaga explained that the album "goes through all of [life]'s emotions". While crafting it, she envisioned a girl in the middle of the country, who would understand the singer's lyrics and find a human connection. To achieve that, Gaga said in an interview with E! that she decided to encompass an assortment of genres, including "[crossing] between country and funk, pop, dance, rock, electronic music, [and] folk". The death of Gaga's aunt, Joanne Germanotta, contributed to the emotional content of the songs, as well as to their lyrics. Along with identity, feelings such as loss, heartbreak, frustration, desire and nostalgia also influenced the album. The singer clarified that with Joanne she wanted to go "out into the world ... bringing with me its deepest stories that I have of my life and turning them into songs that I hope will touch people in a deep and meaningful way about their own lives and their own stories".
The singer's experience working on American Horror Story influenced Joannes creative process. Gaga said: "I have returned to something I've believed in so much, which is the art of darkness." Being on the show also impacted her vocals. She explained that she would "listen" more to the music and then write. She added that Joanne would talk less about her painful time during the Artpop era and would have more clarity: "Now I'm thinking more about what it is I want to say and what I want to leave on Earth. It's less an expression of all my pain." The album became an outlet for the singer to relieve herself of the "pain and anguish" she was feeling.
Other influences came from the men in Gaga's life, including her father Joe Germanotta and ex-fiancé Taylor Kinney. She said that using her "rebellious spirit", she wanted to understand the different relationships she had gone through, saying that Joanne was not a "sad album. It's an album that is very revealing of me as a woman." According to Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast: "The act of being Lady Gaga had drowned out the brilliant music, and the importance of Lady Gaga had somehow muddied the simple pleasure of being her fan: It was her authenticity, in all of its strangeness and lofty artistic pursuit, that spoke to us. That seemed to have gone missing." He felt that with Joanne, Gaga was able to eliminate that redundancy and present herself as an "evolved performer", who could "lay bare" emotions in the songs, rather than "mask" them in electronic music beats.
Title and packaging
Gaga named the album after Joanne Stefani Germanotta, her father's sister. She died on December 18, 1974, at age 19, due to complications arising from lupus. Gaga, whose middle name is Joanne (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), recognized her aunt's death had had a profound effect on her family and her work. The booklet in her debut album, The Fame (2008), contained a poem titled For a Moment written by Joanne.
Gaga credits Joanne with helping her overcome addiction problems, and dedicated The Fame Ball Tour (2009) to her. The singer tattooed the date of Joanne's death on her left biceps, "between lines of a verse from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke". The singer's parents opened a restaurant called Joanne Trattoria in New York in 2012. Gaga has often said that although she never met her, Joanne was "one of the most important figures in my life". After she wrote the song "Joanne" with Ronson, they decided to use the name as the album's title as a tribute to her aunt.
Along with revealing the album's title, Gaga also unveiled the cover artwork. It consists of an image of the singer's left profile, with her wearing a pink, wide-brimmed hat, against a blue background. The hat was designed by milliner Gladys Tamez, who revealed it was another source of inspiration behind the overall direction of Joanne. The milliner explained to The Daily Beast that one of the hats was inspired by English singer Marianne Faithfull. She said that "Gaga was the first to ever request this hat in pink", stating it is the singer's favorite color. Tamez also named it "Lady Joanne" and added that Gaga had her change the shape, color and the ribbon on the hat. While designing the cover and the overall image, Tamez and Gaga spoke of using more pastel colors, inspired by the aesthetics of the 1970s.