Lady Gaga
A powerhouse ally who co-wrote and performed a number-one single celebrating resilience through shared vulnerability.
Lady Gaga is an American singer who co-wrote and performed "Rain on Me" with Ariana Grande, a track from Gaga's sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020). The song was released by Interscope Records as the album's second single on May 22, 2020. Gaga described the track in a March 2020 interview with Paper as a "celebration of all the tears," revealing it emerged from deeply personal conversations with Grande about resilience, perseverance, and gratitude. The collaboration was first referenced by Gaga in that interview, at a time when her work with Grande had not yet been revealed.
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
- Born
- 28 March 1986
- Birthplace
- New York City, US
- Occupation
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
- Organization
- Born This Way Foundation; Haus Labs
- Years active
- 2000–present
- Partner
- Michael Polansky (2020–present; engaged)
- Mother
- Cynthia Germanotta
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Gaga and Grande's collaboration on "Rain on Me" began with deeply personal conversations about their lives, as Gaga revealed in a March 2020 interview with Paper. She explained that the track was created with another prominent female pop artist who had likewise endured intense public scrutiny and trauma, framing it as an exchange between two women reflecting on resilience, perseverance, and gratitude. During a May 2020 interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music's Beats 1, Gaga detailed how Grande approached the collaboration with empathy and openness. Gaga noted that during one studio session, she was still emotionally distressed, and Grande responded with persistent gestures of support, telling her, "You're gonna be alright," and repeatedly reaching out in an effort to build a friendship. Gaga later admitted she initially pulled back out of shame and a reluctance to project her emotional state onto Grande, but a candid exchange—when Grande told her, "you're hiding"—became a turning point that strengthened their connection. The song was co-written by Gaga, Grande, Burns, Nija Charles, Rami Yacoub, Bresso, Boys Noize, and Chromatica executive producer BloodPop. It was produced by Burns and BloodPop, with Tchami credited for additional production. The track was recorded during the broader Chromatica sessions, developed over roughly two years across several studios in Los Angeles, including EastWest Studios, Westlake Recording Studios, and Henson Recording Studios. Gaga's longtime engineer and vocal producer Benjamin Rice oversaw the recording and vocal production, employing an iterative workflow where vocals recorded during early songwriting sessions could later be incorporated into the final arrangement. The final mix was completed through a collaborative process between Rice and mixer Tom Norris, with Norris later describing "Rain on Me" as one of the most involved tracks on the album, noting it underwent multiple production revisions and mixing adjustments over several months.
Reader's Guide
Lady Gaga enters this narrative primarily as a collaborative force during the pivotal 2020 era, marking a significant intersection in their respective careers. Her visual presence in the "Rain on Me" music video, directed by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, features her dancing inside a giant arena during a rainstorm with daggers falling from the sky. In the context of Ariana's story, she represents artistic fearlessness, encouraging growth through partnership and shared vulnerability on a global scale. Gaga explained that the chorus was written to intentionally suggest both intoxication and sobriety, with its opening line sounding like either "I'd rather be drunk" or "I'd rather be dry," underscoring the song's central tension between numbing pain and pursuing healing. Their joint work became a cultural touchstone, with "Rain on Me" entering at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Gaga's fifth and Grande's fourth number-one single in the United States. It marked the first all-female collaboration to debut atop the chart and made Grande the first artist to have four songs debut at the top spot. On Spotify, "Rain on Me" was the seventh most streamed song of summer 2020 and the most streamed song by a female artist globally during the season. The song also topped the charts in Canada, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Scotland, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Beyond the recording studio, their interactions were characterized by genuine camaraderie, as seen in promotional skits released on May 26 and May 28, 2020, in partnership with The Weather Channel, where Gaga and Grande delivered mock weather forecasts while holding umbrellas and joking about wanting to "celebrate the rain."
More in Band Members & Collaborators
Elsewhere in Ariana Grande
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced