Alejandro (song)
Interscope Records intended the track "Dance in the Dark" to be the EP's third single after "Alejandro" initially received limited airplay, but Gaga insisted on the latter.In the video, she dances with male soldiers in a cabaret, interspersed with scenes of near-naked men holding machine guns and Gaga playing a nun who swallows a rosary.In a Cambridge University Press-published journal analyzing Gaga's "musical intertexts" on The Fame Monster, authors Lori Burns, Alyssa Woods and Marc Lafrance described her voice during this passage as "compressed and filtered to create a distant but focused effect".[11] Gaga sings the pre-chorus where she describes her relationship as problematic and lets her lover know about making a choice: "You know that I love you, boy/Hot like Mexico, rejoice!/At this point I've got to choose/Nothing to lose.[14][15] Burns, Woods and Lafrance believed by referencing "Fernando", which was popular within the gay community, Gaga identifies as an advocate for the rights of marginalized minorities.[16] Comparing the song with Ace of Base's "Don't Turn Around"—which tells the story of a woman left by her male lover—Burns, Woods and Lafrance added that "Alejandro" switches this concept where Gaga initiates the break-up.[20] She felt that the names Alejandro, Roberto and Fernando, the word "Mexico", and the brief Spanish lyrics confirmed either that the song is set in Latin America or Gaga's lover is Hispanic.Confused by the song's constant shift of viewpoint from "I" to "You" to "She",[21] Kustritz noted how certain phrases[a] introduce themes but do not develop them further and "merely appear, like drunken lyrical mad lib fill-ins.The song was called a summer-friendly track (BBC),[23] a "lush paean to a love that's 'hot like Mexico'" (MTV News),[15] "brilliantly catchy, deceptively simple and wonderfully melancholy" (MusicOMH),[24] and light-hearted (NME and Los Angeles Times).[31][32] In a five-out-of-five-star review, Copsey recognized similarities to "La Isla Bonita" and Ace of Base songs, but felt that Gaga added "her own inimitable twist too"."[42] On the song's 10-year anniversary, Mike Wass of Idolator complimented it for still sounding "as audacious and addictive as it did back then", concluding that "every element of 'Alejandro' comes together perfectly to create dance-pop bliss".[47][48] A 2017 journal, published by Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts studying structural patterns in the melodies of earworm songs, compiled lists of catchiest tracks from 3,000 participants, in which "Alejandro" ranked number eight."[78] On the television talk show Larry King Live (2010), Gaga released a black-and-white portion from the video, in which she and her dancers perform variations on a sharp military march throughout.When the lyrics begin, she sits on a throne in an elaborate headpiece and binocular-like eyepieces, holding a smoking pipe and watching her dancers perform a rigorous routine in the snow.[83] Gaga appears dressed in a white hooded robe reminiscent of Joan of Arc, interspersed with a shot of her as a nun consuming rosary beads.[84] Gaga and her dancers in military uniforms are shown in a black-and-white sequence, performing a tribute to the late choreographer Bob Fosse, the director of the film version of Cabaret.[22] Author Joshua S. Walden saw vague allusions to a Hispanic location through the Catholic references with crucifix iconography, the red nun habit and the rosary.[86] James Montgomery thought the video was a tribute to pre-Nazi Germany, elaborating that the "carefully crafted close-ups, languorously smoked cigarettes and oppressively cut costumes" evoke the "artistically fertile but politically and economically difficult era" before Adolf Hitler's rise to power.James Montgomery from MTV News commented that "Gaga has created a world that, while oppressive, also looks great"[80] and added in another piece that "she may have finally reached the point in her career where not even she can top herself."[88] Rolling Stone's Daniel Kreps labeled the video a "cinematic epic",[89] and Nate Jones of Time was impressed with the combination of "self-conscious ballsiness of Gaga and director Steven Klein".[94][95] Anthony Benigno from New York Daily News felt that "the shock songstress' new music video ... is chock full of bed-ridden S&M imagery that makes it look like the softcore answer to The Matrix" (1999).[8][97][92] According to Devon Thomas from CBS News, "Express Yourself" influenced Gaga's short, cropped hair and black blazer "set against the stark, post-industrialist mood" in "Alejandro".The New York Times' Jon Caramanica viewed the controversy as Gaga's attempt to take the "Queen of Pop" title from Madonna and found the religious imagery obvious and lazy.The soldiers wore German underwear from the Interwar period and black shirts and leather jackets; for the authors Sally Gray and Anusha Rutnam, they represented "Italian fascist-inflected male sartorial aesthetics".[109] In the Journal of LGBT Youth, Gilad Padva wrote that the military look is "queered by the explicit homoerotic photography, stylized choreography, the revealing outfits, their exposed muscles, and their sensual interactions".[115] On the revamped show, Gaga smeared herself with fake blood during "Alejandro", as she took a bath in a fountain-like architecture on the stage, a replica of Bethesda Fountain in New York's Central Park.As the lights dimmed, she sat at her piano on the rotating stage and belted out "Speechless", followed by the performance of "Alejandro" where she was picked up by one of her dancers covered in talcum powder.During the chorus, a statue of the Virgin Mary had flames pouring out of its top, after which fog filled the stage as Gaga and her dancers performed a dance routine.[132] The song was also part of the setlist of the Joanne World Tour (2017–2018), where she performed it in a mesh leather cut-out bodysuit,[133][134][135] and her Las Vegas residency show, Enigma (2018–2020).
SingleLady GagaThe Fame MonsterStudioSynth-popKonLiveCherrytreeInterscopeSongwriter(s)Stefani GermanottaNadir KhayatProducer(s)TelephoneDance in the DarkYouTubeextended playreissueThe FameRedOneInterscope RecordsairplayEuropopLatin popsampleVittorio MontiCsárdásLatinocatchinessAce of BaseearwormAmerican Psychological AssociationSteven KleincabaretrosaryCatholic Leagueanti-fascismninth seasonAmerican Idolher concert tours and residency showsvocal arrangementbackground vocalsinstrumentationprogrammingrecordingaudio engineeringmasteredAmsterdamTwitterFuse TVBillboardEuro-popSpanish accentCambridge University PressintertextschorusSony/ATV Music Publishingtime signaturebeats per minuteB minorchord progressionFernandogay communityShakiraWhenever, WhereverMadonnaLa Isla Bonitaperformance artVulturesex-positive feminismshell gameHispanicMTV NewsMusicOMHLos Angeles TimesDigital SpyL MagazineMonsterBad RomanceSlant MagazineRolling StoneAllMusicPitchforkWho's That GirlThe TimesEurovisionThe Boston GlobePopMattersThe GuardianBelfast Telegraphfemme-fataleIdolatorInternational Dance Music AwardBMI Pop AwardGaygalan AwardRockbjörnenPsychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the ArtsBillboard Hot 100Mainstream Top 40Hot Digital SongsNielsen SoundscanMonicaHot Dance Club SongsRecording Industry Association of AmericaCanadian Hot 100ARIA Singles ChartAustralian Recording Industry AssociationNew Zealand Top 40UK Singles ChartOfficial Charts CompanyBritish Phonographic IndustryUltratophomoeroticismLarry King Livedon't ask, don't tellUnited States Armed ForcesBroadwayEmporio Armanifishnet stockingsStar of DavidSacred HeartSally BowlesJoan of ArcBob Fossethe film versionLiza Minnellipost-World War II