Why Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars Needed Each Other to Return to No. 1
Throughout chart history, there’s a special breed of duet by two recording artists so illustrious I can abbreviate each name with a mononym, and you know who I’m talking about and probably even the song. In many cases, you might even start singing the chorus from memory—from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” to Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine.” On paper, each duet is a summit of superstars, with both artists contributing a roughly equal measure of fame and lung power to the equation.
But the reality is often subtler than that—career-wise, each superstar needed something from the other. Often, one act is a bit thirstier than the other.
When you encounter one of these mega-duets, you should ask yourself, Who needed this more?
Which brings us to this week’s Hot 100, and our new No. 1 song—actually a months-old song. The first chart-topper of 2025 is a power ballad that arrived in the late summer of ’24 on a wave of hype, seemed destined to peter out, and yet proved stickier than expected. Like many of the duets above—both the classics and the curios—it’s an event more than a mere song, a testament to the persistence of a pair of stars entering middle age. These two, in fact, scored their first hits during Obama’s first term and are topping the charts once again just in time for Trump 2.0. So … mononym fans, I give you: Bruno and Gaga.
“Die With a Smile,” the first-ever collaboration between Peter Gene Hernandez, aka Bruno Mars, and Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, takes over the Hot 100 as the annual onslaught of Christmas music recedes. The first full week of January always brings about the evaporation of Mariah Carey’s and Brenda Lee’s holiday perennials, at which time whatever nonseasonal song is closest to the penthouse takes up residence there. That could just as easily have been Shaboozey’s record-tying “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” or any one of the hit tracks from Kendrick Lamar’s still-fairly-new album GNX. But over the holidays, Bruno and Gaga’s 5-month-old ditty quietly held its own, hovering just below all the merry-season fodder. This week, as the Christmas songs melt away, it soars from No. 17 to No. 1, having emerged as radio’s consensus hit over the holiday season.
As uninspiring as that sounds, “consensus hit” really is the best way to describe “Die With a Smile.” It’s not an innovative song—nothing that will set any novelty-seeking pop fan’s heart aflutter. It’s a decent piece of craftsmanship by a pair of veterans and their respective song doctors. Both Mars and Gaga have produced better hits before. Hell, they’ve each generated better duets before—among my personal favorites are Mars teaming up with Cardi B on his “Finesse” remix (No. 3, 2018) and with Anderson .Paak on the Silk Sonic smash “Leave the Door Open” (No. 1, 2021), and Gaga teaming with, among her many vocal partners, Beyoncé on “Telephone” (No. 3, 2010) and, famously, actor-director Bradley Cooper on “Shallow” (No. 1, 2019). But “Die With a Smile” turned out to be a grower—a song that was instantly familiar on first listen, easy to forget in its early weeks, and ultimately comfort food as we made our way past Election Day and the holidays. It is soothing pablum as we worry about our future and watch the world burn. Especially considering that this song was recorded in Malibu, the line, “If the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you” sounds queasily apt this week in particular.
Musically, “Die With a Smile” distills sounds both artists have pursued before—his brand of loverman pop-and-B crossed with her variety of baby-grand balladry. (There’s a slight whiff of country in there, but more on that in a moment.) Mars and Gaga have both always been magpies, absorbing styles as part of their chart conquest. And these two have been at the pop game long enough that it’s hard to say there’s any one “Bruno sound” or “Gaga sound”; you’re not going to find any of her art-damaged dance pop à la “Poker Face” or “Bad Romance” in here, nor does he traffic in the ’80s style-jacking of “Locked Out of Heaven” or “Uptown Funk!” By 21st-century songwriting standards—modern pop hits can have a dozen or more collaborators—the two kept their circle relatively tight. Mars leaned on his frequent collaborators Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and James Fauntleroy, and Gaga brought in journeyman rock producer Andrew Watt, who was working on her forthcoming album. Together, the five of them crafted a song that’s painfully earnest, really quite square. When Mars and Gaga soar into, “Nobody’s promised tomorrow/ So I’ma love you every night like it’s the last night,” the sentiment is hackneyed, the showmanship undeniable.
