Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett are releasing a jazz album later this year, a move that may or may not be considered true "artpop." Then again, Gaga's "artpop could mean anything."
She's taken to promoting the forthcoming Cheek to Cheek LP while on breaks from her artRave tour. She joined Bennett for a surprise performance at his Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in late June and recently surprised the Montreal Jazz Fest audience in a similar manner. The two previewed some of their tracks together, and, by many accounts, blew the audience away.
All things considered, this is great news for the "Applause" singer. Her record sales haven't shattered the charts like they used to and though her tour is a spectacle, it's not selling. The question of how long can her gimmicks can sustain her is being answered (read: not long). But, Cheek to Cheek could be her saving grace.
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"Gaga is about to have a massive success and a huge career change," Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 writes. Paul Moss, a London-based music PR fellow, echoed Friedman's remarks and Tweeted: "This could bring back Gaga." Amazing.
Gaga's voice is, aside from her style, the reason this collab is even happening. It's what set her apart from the other then-rising pop starlets in 2008. Gaga was the girl with the voice that didn't need auto-tuning. She could sing acoustically, she could spin a rock edge into it, and now, effortlessly blend into the jazz genre.
And, she seems less inclined to revert back to attention-grabbing ways. She's been "dressing down" and letting her voice command the audience rather than some meat dress or egg. The era of Lady Gaga: the Pop Star is coming to a close. The era of Lady Gaga, the capital-E Entertainer is nigh.