Lady Gaga makes 'Mayhem' atop chart, biggest week of 2025 for a woman

Interscope/Frank Lebon

All that promotion paid off: Lady Gaga's Mayhem has debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with the biggest sales week of 2025 by a female artist.

Mayhem, Gaga's first #1 since 2020's Chromatica and her seventh #1 album overall, sold 219,000 units in its first week. The last time an album by a female artist sold more was in September, when Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet started with 362,000 units. Mayhem also gives Gaga her biggest streaming week ever -- the album's songs racked up more than 108 million official streams.

Mayhem marked a return to the dance-pop sound that originally made Gaga a star, which is why she told ABC News' Michael Strahan that she was initially fearful of using that sound again on Mayhem.

"As a woman in music, there was a lot of people that were like, 'Oh, like, this is who made her' or 'This is what made her,'" Gaga explained. "And I think that returning to pop music, for me, was a little bit, like, something I was afraid of because I wondered if I was believing what those people were saying."

But Gaga said when she went into the studio, "I went in with confidence. And I was like, "No, no. I made me, me.'"

Helping her realize that was her fiancé, Michael Polansky, who has multiple songwriting credits on Mayhem, as well as an executive producer credit, though he's not a professional musician. Why was he so involved?

"Well, we do a lot together," Gaga told Strahan, adding, "He's really creative. He plays guitar. He's, like, a beautiful musician. So we have a really creative relationship."

"My album's called Mayhem," she continues. "But ... it's also, like, nice to be in the mayhem with someone else -- like, facing life together."

0
Comments on this article
0
On AirB98.5 FM - 80s 90s & NOW Logo

mobile apps

Everything you love about b985.com and more! Tap on any of the buttons below to download our app.

amazon alexa

Enable our Skill today to listen live at home on your Alexa Devices!