Harlequin is a soundtrack album by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga, released on September 27, 2024, through Interscope Records. It serves as a companion album to the 2024 American musical thriller film Joker: Folie à Deux,[a] in which she portrays the DC Comics character Harley Quinn.
Described by Gaga as "vintage pop", Harlequin consists of songs featured on the film's soundtrack, as well as two original songs with different production. It expands on Gaga's venture into jazz music, also including elements of rock, soul, gospel and doo-wop in its composition. Harlequin has charted at numbers 12 and 28 respectively in Switzerland and New Zealand.
Following the completion of The Chromatica Ball (2022), Lady Gaga took a step back from social media and promotional activities while she focused on preparing her role as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Harley Quinn) in the American musical thriller film Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).[4] In a lengthy Instagram post made on June 16, 2023, Gaga shared that she had been spending alone time "healing" while editing her concert film Gaga Chromatica Ball (2024), filming Joker: Folie à Deux, and creating music for a "special project".[5] Throughout the rest of the year and into 2024, she occasionally teased upcoming music via social media, sharing photos from within the studios where she was working and offering insights into the process.[6]
At the film's red carpet premiere in London, England, on September 25, 2024, Gaga discussed the inspiration for the album, stated, "When we were done with the movie, I wasn't done with her. Because I'm not done with her, I made Harlequin." She also described it as an "indicative of a complex woman that wants to be whoever she wants to be at any given moment."[7]
Harlequin marked Gaga's first jazz standard record without Tony Bennett, following their collaborative albums, Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale (2021).[8] In an interview with Rolling Stone, she emphasized that it was not a sad experience; instead, she felt his presence throughout the entire process. Gaga also reflected on her artistic choices, stating, "In a funny way, if I had put rock & roll chords over production in a record that I did with Tony years ago, I don't know how he would've felt about that. Tony didn't love rock & roll. But he would've said, 'Wow, that's amazing.' He was somebody who loved how risk-taking and different I am, and I always thought that was so cool."[9]
Gaga stated in an interview with the Associated Press that the album consists of music from the film as well as original pieces written for the film, and one original piece created for the album titled "Happy Mistake".[10] Of the album's thirteen tracks, all are covers except for a pair of original tracks, "Folie à Deux" and "Happy Mistake".[11] In a interview with Entertainment Weekly, the singer explained the meaning of the latter song:[12]
"Playing a strung-out girl my whole career was a way for me to split off from my true self, but, it's all me. Basically, that song says if I was ever going to find joy or happiness in my life, it would probably feel like an accident. Where I was in my life for a long time, I was on a path that was pretty futile because I was so split off from reality. My dedicated fans know this about me, that playing a persona had a price, and it has a price for Lee and her love of Joker. There's definitely a way that I address that on this record."
Gaga posted an image on September 20, 2024, containing a "grainy" red background with a white text displaying, "I'm ready for my interview".[13] She later uploaded four more "cryptic" images with three containing sound through Instagram, with many fans believing to be her seventh studio album or related to Joker: Folie à Deux.[14] No singles were released from Harlequin. The physical versions of Harlequin were never available in stores; they were sold exclusively on Lady Gaga's website.
The artist revealed the album to be titled Harlequin and shared the cover artwork via Instagram, on September 24, 2024. In the same post, she referred to the project as a "companion album" to Joker: Folie à Deux and linked to pre-order the album's CD, vinyl, and digital formats on her web store.[15] The following day, Gaga utilized Instagram once again to announce a collaboration with the Louvre Museum in promotion for the album. The post featured an 80-second preview of "The Joker" set to an accompanying visual that shows Gaga exploring the museum at night. Towards the end of the clip, she uses red lipstick to draw a Joker-inspired grin on the Mona Lisa. The clip also promotes the upcoming "Figures Du Fou" exhibition that will open at the Louvre on October 16, 2024.[16] After the film's premiere in London, Gaga hosted a "secret" intimate listening party where her fans got a chance to listen the soundtrack album.[17] On October 1, 2024, Gaga performed "Happy Mistake" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! .[18]
The album's standard cover features Gaga standing in a shower sporting orange hair while wearing a white clothed-dress with a flotation device around her neck.[19] An alternate cover used for an exclusive vinyl sold only on Gaga's web store shows her in a messy bedroom lying on the bed facing the ceiling. She sports orange hair once again while items present in the shot reference previous moments in her career, including her collaborations with Bennett and her concert tour, the Joanne World Tour (2017–2018).[20] The back cover of the album features a photograph of a messy bedroom with the 1862 painting Stańczyk by the Polish painter Jan Matejko hanging on the wall.[21][22]
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73 based on nine reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[24] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? compiled seven reviews and gave the album an average of 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[23]
Writing for Sputnikmusic, Dakota Foss commented that Harlequin blends "swingy and jazzy renditions" and original songs with a sense of uninhibited fun. The review emphasizes Gaga's return to her vibrant, theatrical roots, with standout moments that showcase her talent and ability to captivate, concluding that it is a bold and enjoyable declaration of her resurgence.[33] Mary Siroky of Consequence also highlighted Gaga's theatrical approach and vocal prowess. She wrote that it is "interesting and stylistically excellent" with arrangements which "demonstrate the clear reverence and care she has for these standards" and "the tweaks she makes and lyrical additions she adds feel playful, not flippant".[34] In a positive review, Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield found that "Happy Mistake" is the "best moment" of the album and that Gaga "uses all these artifacts of vintage pop to continue a story she's been telling her entire career."[31] Robin Murray from Clash found it "unique, fun, and wildly over-the-top", while calling Gaga a "360 artist for the modern era."[26] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine viewed that "the album affords the singer turned actress the opportunity to flex her vocal prowess."[32]
The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick found that Harlequin is "more of the same" that Gaga did with Tony Bennett, while saying she "absolutely has the panache to stamp her own personality on them."[27] Michael Cragg for The Guardian felt it as Gaga's Jazz & Piano concert residency "turned into an album". Cragg also added that it would please "fans of immaculately covered jazz standards" and described that she is sounding "fully engaged, happy, and completely in her element as she skips between Harley Quinn's various moods."[28] Helen Brown of The Independent gave it three out of five starts, stating that the album features polished performances, but it also lacks the emotional depth and thematic cohesion into the madness of Harley Quinn.[29]