Lady Gaga's 10 best songs - The Culture Countdown

She’s baaaack! Five years after her last album Chromatica, one of the most iconic pop stars of all time returns with her eighth studio album Mayhem - and rather aptly, just in time for International Women’s Day.

To mark the occasion - and to whet your appetite for Mayhem - we’ve run a fine tooth comb through Gaga’s back catalogue to pick out ten of her best tracks.

10. Rain on Me (featuring Ariana Grande)

Lady Gaga’s collaborations with some of the (other) biggest names in pop have been plentiful over the years, but not all of them have quite hit the mark. Teaming up with Ariana Grande on this track from 2020’s Chromatica, however, was a stroke of genius. A glorious, uplifting tune that draws influence from '90s house music and with a banging chorus to boot, it allowed both artists to have their moment without either dominating the song.

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9. Telephone (featuring Beyoncé)

Another world-beating collaboration, Telephone was released on 2008’s debut album The Fame (later reissued as The Fame Monster in 2009) before either Gaga or Beyoncé were the megastars that they are now. Although flavoured by that trademark spiky Gaga production and kiss-off lyrics, you could easily imagine that melody and stomping beat being crooned by Abba in their 1970s heyday.

8. The Edge of Glory

If there’s one thing that Gaga has always excelled at, it’s a big build-up to a huge chorus. The Edge of Glory, from 2011’s Born This Way, had those elements in spades. A glittering, disco-infused synthpop number that was inspired by her grandparents’ relationship - written as her grandfather was dying - it makes lines like "I'm on the edge of something final we call life tonight" all the more poignant.

7. Just Dance

Gaga certainly set her stall out with her debut single - a jittery, clubby, dance-pop number that was co-written by Akon (of Lonely fame) and his producer RedOne, believe it or not. Apparently, the song was co-written in the studio while she was hungover in just ten minutes. It quickly established the New Yorker as a fresh new voice on the pop scene in 2008.

6. Applause

By 2013, Gaga had firmly marked out her territory as one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, and her third album Artpop confirmed that she wasn’t content to merely rehash, recycle and repackage her big hits, as many acts often do. This was Gaga offering her fans a bolder take on EDM and pop music, which wasn’t particularly received well by critics - but there’s no denying the firepower of this snappy dancefloor banger.

5. Paparazzi

There is no pop prefix that has been off-limits with Lady Gaga: over the course of her career she has dabbled in synthpop, electropop, soulpop and of course, artpop. On the dazzling Paparazzi, she embraced technopop as she sang unapologetically about her bid for fame and fortune. With a sensual vocal incorporated into that clipped, seductive beat, it became an instant earworm upon its release - and showcased a different side of Gaga to those who had dismissed her as a one-trick pony, too.

4. Born This Way

One of the most anthemic songs in her back catalogue, the title track from 2011’s Born This Way has been adopted by the LGBT community as a protest song of-sorts (and lines like "There's nothing wrong with loving who you are" and "I'm beautiful in my way, ‘cos God makes no mistakes" attest to its relevance). While its lyrical sentiment is undoubtedly empowering, it also works at surface level, too: it’s impossible not to get swept up in that sense of air-punching jubilance. Gaga compared its birth to "the Immaculate Conception" - perhaps a cheeky nod to the regular comparisons drawn between her and another pop icon, Madonna.

3. Shallow

You may have pegged Gaga as a singer of rousing, anthemic pop tunes tailored for club dancefloors, but her turn in the 2018 remake of A Star is Born opposite Bradley Cooper proved that she was more than adept at the odd ballad, too. Shallow was the standout moment from both the movie and the soundtrack: a tender acoustic guitar and piano duet infused with an aching poignancy. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2019, became one of the best-selling singles of all time, and has been streamed over 2.5 billion times on Spotify alone. And perhaps most importantly, it became an instant favourite on karaoke machines across the world. If you haven’t been subjected to such a performance, count yourself lucky.

2. Poker Face

There are some who would claim that Lady Gaga has never quite reclaimed the dizzy heights scaled on her debut album, and perhaps it’s true to an extent: there are so many bangers that became instant classics on The Fame that it’s hard to dismiss its potency. While subsequent albums explored other musical territories, there’s no getting away from the fact that her first album made a massive impact thanks to songs like Poker Face. One of a handful of tracks instantly associated with Gaga, it’s a song that embraces love and sex with a gleeful seediness; a dark, glittering gem that is so recognisably Gaga that you can’t imagine anyone else replicating it.

1. Bad Romance

Those soaring opening bars of Bad Romance are somewhat misleading - is this going to be a ballad, or a heartfelt paean about a relationship gone wrong? As soon as those iconic ‘Ra-ra-ah-ah-ahhhh’ vocals kick in, however, it’s clear that Lady Gaga is not feeling particularly reflective about the object of her affection. Instead, this is a lust-driven number with lines like (I want your drama, the touch of your hand / I want your leather-studded kiss in the sand"), while never before has the work of Hitchcock sounded quite so sexy ("I want your Psycho, your Vertigo shtick / Want you in my Rear Window, baby, you're sick"). Sometimes, however, you just can’t explain exactly what makes a song so instantly memorable: with Bad Romance, perhaps it’s a combination of that insistent house-inflected beat, the melody, those dusky vocals and a sprinkling of magic. There are few who would disagree that it’s her best song, and it undoubtedly cemented her as a contemporary musical icon. Most of all, though? It’s simply a bloody great pop song.

Mayhem by Lady Gaga is available now

Lady Gaga's 10 best songs - The Culture Countdown

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