By Variety | Created at 2024-11-20 19:38:01 | Updated at 2024-11-27 14:32:40
6 days ago
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars‘ ballad “Die With a Smile” has become the fastest song to reach a billion streams on Spotify.
The track, which released in initially released as a standalone single in August, was an instant hit, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the time since, the song has had remarkable staying power, with subsequent versions including a “Live in Las Vegas” rendition and an acoustic iteration hitting streaming services in October.
Gaga and Mars debuted the song live just as it released to the public at the latter’s show for the opening of Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome. A few weeks later, they reunited to perform the track twice during his concert residency at Las Vegas’ Park MGM.
Most recently, “Die With a Smile” was nominated for song of the year and best pop duo/group performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
As the song continues to maintain momentum, Gaga has been promoting her upcoming seventh album, arriving in February. Last month, she released its lead single “Disease,” a darkly-shaded pop tune with a horror-adjacent music video to match. Prior to that, she put out her album “Harlequin” in September as a companion piece to the film “Joker: Folie à Deux,” in which she starred. The project was largely a collection of covers from the American songbook.
Meanwhile, Mars is furthering his collaborative streak with an appearance on Rosé’s “Apt.” That song topped over 100 million streams on Spotify within its first week of release last month.
