Lady Gaga And Ariana Grande’s “Rain On Me” Is Empowering House-Pop

Written by Vocalo Radio on May 22, 2020

The latest single from Lady Gaga is a triumphant call to stop hiding from our fears and sadness. Backed, of course, by powerhouse vocals from Ariana Grande.

“Rain On Me” has dropped right when it’s hard to imagine a world where life goes back to ‘normal.’ So what better time for Lady Gaga to revisit the very best of her pop roots?! The tune is pushed by a sprinting, 90s-inspired house beat that’s pulsing with energy, but maintains the quintessential Gaga pop she stepped away from on her 2016 LP Joanne.

The track also sees the same distorted-funk baseline as her February single “Stupid Love.” With only two songs out, it appears her upcoming album will be the dance record fans have been begging for. And even when it feels like we have nothing to dance about at the moment, that’s precisely her point: we need to get up and move anyway.

“Rain On Me” seems to be a fantastic summary of the entire album, which Gaga says is not only a revisit to dance-pop, but also became a healing process for past trauma.

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The water imagery is heavy throughout the lyrics. “I can feel it on my skin/ Teardrops on my face/ Let it wash away my sins.” Throughout the track, both Gaga and Grande, who are collaborating for the first time, talk about persevering through troubles and rejoicing in not only the journey, but also the comfort of knowing things will get better. After all, “I’d rather be dry but at least I’m alive.”

The song is the second single ahead of Lady Gaga’s upcoming LP Chromatica. It comes after February’s lead single “Stupid Love” and is the first of several star-studded collabs set to appear on the album. In April, the singer revealed the track list, which teased other appearances by Elton John and BLACKPINK. While the full project was supposed to arrive in April, it’s been rescheduled to May 29 due to the pandemic.

Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music’s Beats 1, Gaga said that the collaboration with Grande opened up an instant connection. “It was the joy of two artists going, ‘I see you,'” she said. On the subject of the album’s message of healing, she said:

“I think that the beginning of the album really symbolizes, for me, what I would call the beginning of my journey to healing, and what I would hope would be an inspiration for people that are in need of healing through happiness, through dance. […] And that’s in what I would call radical acceptance… For example, I know that I have mental issues; I know that they can be sometimes rendering me nonfunctional as a human. But I radically accept that this is real.”

As for Grande, she released a series of loved-up tweets and instagram posts where she said Gaga “Immediately felt like a sister.” This collaboration is the latest in a series of high-profile women artists teaming up. And can we just say? We hope this trend never ever dies.