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Lady Gaga performs onstage during the MTV Europe Music Awards 2011 live show at at the Odyssey Arena on Nov. 6, 2011 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
You could count on one hand and probably still have some fingers left over the number of pop albums this century that have been as widely and wildly anticipated as Lady Gaga s second full-length album
Born This Way.
Released worldwide 10 years ago this weekend, the album followed two years of Gaga racking up massive hit singles ( Just Dance, Poker Face, Bad Romance ), with accompanying larger-than-life music videos and headline-grabbing live performances that helped cement her as music s biggest new star.
1. After multiple months in the top 10, Save Your Tears jumps to No. 1 this week in large part due to the release of the song s Grande-featuring remix. Why was the remix so immediately impactful and do you think the new version adds much to the original song besides boosting its star power?
Katie Atkinson: It feels like The Weeknd had this remix in his back pocket and was just waiting for the perfect time to deploy it – and he clearly picked the correct week. I think the immediate impact has everything to do with the familiar pairing of The Weeknd and Ariana Grande and fans loving them together. But for me, while Grande s ethereal vocals are really lovely here, I think history (and radio) will remember the album version as the definitive take on this track.
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SOPHIE, Bipp”
SOPHIE’s breakthrough single resembled nothing else in contemporary pop upon its June 2013 release, but its roots were clearly
in pop: all of its blips, whirs, distorted beats and tempo shifts don’t work without a vocal hook, “I can make you feel better,” that’s somehow both metallic and warm. “Bipp,” which earned rave reviews and year-end list placements in 2013, was alien and catchy as hell, challenging the DNA of pop while embracing its soul; in this way, it would serve as a North Star for the rest of SOPHIE’s career.
– Jason Lipshutz
This deceptively simple 2014 single which would eventually land on SOPHIE S 2015