Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters press conference revealed all

On the evening of February 27, over 200 of Lady Gaga’s biggest Little Monsters (and a handful of press) converged at a warehouse in Brooklyn to get a first listen of her seventh studio album, MAYHEM. Dressed in leather and black, attendees buzzed, danced, and screamed bloody murder when Gaga herself emerged for a surprise dance session. But the event, thrown in partnership with Spotify, came with another quirk: a press conference where Gaga would finally answer everything her fans had been dying to know.

The FADER was lucky enough to be on the ground to witness everything that went down at the phone-free event, including spotting Gaga dancing with fiancé Michael Polansky to her own music, host Benny Drama riling up the crowd, and the crowd’s consensus that her Gesaffelstein-produced industrial grunge song “Killa” was the favorite of the night (which we second). When Gaga herself finally held court, looking appropriately regal in a wild chemist wig and billowing black coat, she graciously answered queries ranging from Azealia Banks to Art Pop 2.

Below, find our biggest takeaways from the press conference from the heartfelt story behind her song “Blade of Grass,” to the one piece of advice she lives by from Tony Bennett.

She saw those Azealia Banks tweets

“I did,” is all Lady Gaga had to say when a fan asked her if she’d seen Azealia Banks’ X posts about her single “Disease.” (Banks, among other things, called it “impressive.”) Gaga, who’s had tense exchanges with the rapper in the past, didn’t elaborate any further, but she did quip that “this really is a Little Monsters press conference.”

“Telephone” will be continued (but the ball’s in Beyoncé’s court)

For 14 years, the world has been haunted by a “to be continued” tacked on at the end of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s “Telephone” music video. In February, Gaga finally addressed the possibility of a part two in Vanity Fair’s latest Lie Detector Test video, claiming that the storyline would be continued. She doubled down on that at the Little Monsters press conference, but advised, “I think that you should all call Beyoncé together.”

She revisited the “Frankensteined” demo for MAYHEM, but it didn’t make the cut

Gaga isn’t one to trek back into her vault of demos (more on that later), but she did revisit some old music while making MAYHEM, one of them being “Frankensteined,” a cut from the Joanne era that’s become a fan favorite since it was leaked online. Sadly, she “threw it out” the second she heard it. “I know it might sound cold, but each one of my albums is a piece of music that I conceive of from start to finish, and it’s a moment in time and in my life that’s very special. Whenever I say to myself, ‘Oh, there’s that song, I’m gonna put that.’ whenever that happens, it just never really comes to fruition because it never really belongs.”

“Blade of Grass” is inspired by her proposal to Michael Polansky

“Blade of Grass” is one of several grand ballads from MAYHEM. Gaga revealed that the song’s title is a reference to her real life proposal to her fiancé Michael Polansky. “Long before he did propose, […] we were in the backyard and he said, ‘If I propose to you one day, what am I supposed to do?’ And I said, ‘You can just get a blade of grass from the backyard and wrap it around my finger.’” Per Gaga, he did actually propose with a green band, along with her massive million-dollar engagement ring.

The two also co-wrote the song together: “It’s special because every time I hear it, Michael and I, when we did the bridge together, I said, ‘I’ll give you something and it’s no diamond ring.’ He said, ‘The air that I’m breathing.’”

She lives by this piece of advice Tony Bennett once gave her

“Tony used to always say to me, ‘Stick with quality, kid.’ I thought that was really smart. He was trying to tell me that no matter what anybody says or what you feel pressured to do, that you just should make great music. When I went into the studio and I made MAYHEM, I was just so focused on making the best possible records, the best possible music, so it definitely stayed with me. Tony reminds me to drown out the noise.”

The MAYHEM visuals came from “gothic dreams” she was having

When writing the songs on MAYHEM, Gaga said that she was having “visions” that she described as “gothic dreams.” “All these dark visions, and each one of them I’m trying to bring to life in its own way. Like ‘Abracadabra’ was its own gothic dream, and it came to life in a video.”

She would like to write a musical for Broadway one day

Gaga isn’t pressed to win a Tony, but she does have aspirations of writing a musical. “I would really love to write a musical. I think that would bring me so much joy, and to work with some amazing writers. The first thing that needs to happen is I need to figure out what the important story is that I want to tell, with whoever I want to tell it with. While I appreciate the desire for me to win a Tony, I would want to put years of work into that.”

What she whispered to Ariana Grande during their 2020 VMAs performance remains a mystery

Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain On Me” performance from the 2020 VMAs lives on in Little Monsters lore, mostly for the few seconds when Gaga whispers something to Grande near the end. There’s been speculation about what exactly was exchanged, but we’ll likely never really know — because Gaga has no idea. “I don’t know! Here’s what I will say. I truly do not recall. It was probably something very, very silly because […] we’re very silly when we’re together.”

Don’t rule out a MAYHEM tour

“There will probably be something soon,” Gaga said when asked about a possible MAYHEM tour.

She’s still not sold on the idea of Art Pop 2, but anything is possible

On whether she would ever release a second Art Pop album with unreleased demos, Gaga said it’s not “impossible,” but it still isn’t likely. “When I make my records, there is a reason that songs are left off. And it’s because some simply are not good enough for you. And I’m not saying that it’s a never, but I am saying that I’m not gonna take all my demos that I specifically left off the record and just chuck them on an album with the number two on it.” For it to happen, she says she would want it to feel “reactionary” to what happened “as a community.” “That was my EDM Opus. I feel like I’d have to get back in that headspace and complete it.”