Bloody Mary

Album

Tear Down These Walls

Label

Interscope Records

Genre

Electropop

Duration

5:00

Composer(s)

Stefani Germanotta;Fernando Garibay;Paul Blair;

Entered Chart

Jan 14, 2023

Peak Date

Apr 1, 2023

Released

December 2, 2022

Recorded

2010 Studio Studios 301, Sydney

This spooky electro ballad is sung from the perspective of Mary Magdalene, who was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples and the first person to see Jesus after he rose from the dead. Gaga told NME: "I believe that Mary Magdalene was both fully divine and fully human. She has to be strong when Jesus fulfills the prophecy to die for everyone's sins, but she still has the moment of humanity where she's upset to let him go. She had to be a superstar, but she must have cried too." The song finds Gaga singing a line in French, "Je ne veux pas mourir toute seule" ("I don't want to die alone"). She also concludes the song with the Portuguese phrase "Liberdade e Amor" ("Freedom and love"). Born This Way musical producer Fernando Garibay told MTV News the electro pop tune was developed from a track that was put together by co-producer DJ White Shadow. "This is another one that started on a White Shadow track," he recalled. "I remember [Gaga] played this to me in Australia and we sat down and ... opened up the track and she started singing [the melody and lyrics] to it. We came back and added a few more parts to it and facilitated with the production of the record," he continued. "Again, it stayed pretty much intact as the original demo. It's a beautiful song. It's very personal to her. It's pretty bold." Gaga owns a vintage blood red Rolls Royce, which she refers to as "Bloody Mary." In a Facebook post shortly after the album was released, Gaga explained: "Bloody Mary is about living halfway between reality and fantasy. I went to a dirty party in Berlin, and wrote Scheiße the next day. It's about wanting to be bad without permission." The song had a new lease of life in late 2022 after the Little Monsters remixed and edited it into a dance scene on the supernatural comedy horror TV show Wednesday. The scene features in the fourth episode of the Netflix show, where the title character (Jenna Ortega) takes to the dance floor and channels some goth moves. Wednesday actually dances to is The Cramps' 1981 cover of Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads' "Goo Goo Muck," but Gaga's fans believe "Bloody Mary" should have been the song used for the dance. The fan recreations went viral on TikTok, causing a massive spike in streams. "Bloody Mary" landed on the single charts worldwide for the first time, 11 years after the release of Born This Way.

Love is just a history that they may prove
And when you're gone I'll tell them my religion's you
When Pontius come to kill the king upon his throne
I'm ready for their stones

I'll dance, dance, dance
With my hands, hands, hands
Above my head, head, head
Like Jesus, said
I'm gonna dance, dance, dance
With my hands, hands
Hands above my head
Dance together
Forgive him before he's dead because

I won't cry for you
I won't crucify the things you do
I won't cry for you, see
When you're gone I'll still be bloody Mary

We are not just art for Michelangelo
To carve, he can't rewrite the aggro of my furied
Heart, I'll wait on mountain tops in Paris cold
Je ne veux pas mourir toute seule

I'll dance, dance, dance
With my hands, hands, hands
Above my head, head, head
Like Jesus, said
I'm gonna dance, dance, dance
With my hands, hands
Hands above my head
Dance together
Forgive him before he's dead because

I won't cry for you
I won't crucify the things you do
I won't cry for you, see
When you're gone I'll still be bloody Mary

Gaga, Gaga, Gaga, Gaga, Gaga, Gaga, Gaga, Gaga
Dum dum da da da
Dum dum da da da da da da
Dum dum da da da
Dum dum da da da
Dum dum da da da da da da
Dum dum da da da

I won't cry for you
I won't crucify the things you do do do
I won't cry for you (Gaga), see (Gaga)
When you're gone I'll still be Bloody (Gaga) Mary (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)

Oh oh oh oh oh (Gaga)