Pop Idols Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande Join Forces For “Rain On Me”
Two of the most iconic pop artists of this generation have finally combined their talents with the recent release of “Rain On Me”. Lady Gaga’s eccentric persona paired with Ariana Grande’s renowned vocal chops provided a superb last single before Gaga’s highly anticipated release of Chromatica, her first studio album since 2016. After softening her image a bit during her Joanne and A Star Is Born eras during which she capitalized on her vocal prowess, Mother Monster has returned, metallic wardrobe, neon hair and everything.
Listening to this electropop banger, your first instinct will probably be to let loose on the dance floor, not necessarily to ponder the meaning behind the tune. However, “Rain On Me” is one of those songs that you can dance AND cry to. Behind the synth-disco beat and funky guitar riffs is a message of both heartbreak and healing. The story behind the origin of the song itself is rather heartwarming, as Gaga revealed during an interview with Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe. Grande pursued a friendship with her during a time in which Gaga was wrestling with trauma from painful breakups and a sexual assault that she was in the midst of addressing. As she described to Lowe, “she was very persistent, she tried being friends with me so many times. But I was very ashamed, I didn't want to project all that negativity onto her. Then she came up to me and said 'you're hiding', and I said 'yeah, you're right, I'm absolutely hiding', and that's where our friendship blossomed."
Despite her rising to become arguably one of the most revered female vocalists of the decade, Ariana Grande’s past few years have been extremely turbulent, much of it having been highly publicized by the media. In May of 2017, the deadliest attack to occur in the UK since 2005 took place at one of the stops on her Dangerous Woman tour in Manchester, when a suicide bomber claimed the lives of 23 people and injured hundreds more, many being children. After beginning to work through her own trauma that came with the incident and seemingly finding her strength again, the spotlight found its way back to Grande following the death of acclaimed rapper Mac Miller. Grande had a heavy history with Miller, with a close friendship for several years before developing into a romantic relationship. As soon as the news of his tragic overdose broke, countless hateful comments flooded Grande’s socials blaming her for Miller’s death, all while she was grappling with the grief herself. When Lady Gaga finally opened up to her about her own trauma, they found strength from sharing their pain with each other, as Grande expressed on social media. “One time…..I met a woman who knew pain the same way I did…who cried as much as I did, drank as much wine as I did, ate as much pasta as I did and whose heart was bigger than her whole body. She immediately felt like a sister to me. She then held my hand and invited me into the beautiful world of Chromatica and together, we got to express how beautiful and healing it feels to mothaf***in cry!”
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande bring signature ingredients of their own artistry to the song and its accompanying music video to satisfy members of both fandoms. Gaga’s stiff, robotic dance style and her spoken word, almost sounding like an incantation, pay homage to the Lady Gaga we all knew and loved years ago during the height of The Fame Monster’s and Born This Way’s reception, as those elements return in Chromatica. While staying true to the badass femininity reflected in the song, Grande still manages to sneak in her cutesy style with butterfly wings attached to her armor. And of course, no Ari-featured song would be complete without her traveling into the stratosphere to showcase her ridiculous vocal range and her clean riffing abilities. The powerful image of the two women grabbing hands in solidarity during the bridge before promptly breaking out into a dance party in the rain perfectly captures the song’s theme of finding support and acknowledging that it’s okay to not be okay.
You can check out the “Rain On Me” music video at the link below, and stream the rest of Lady Gaga’s Chromatica album on all major streaming platforms.
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