The pop icon calls her song with Bruno Mars ‘Die with a Smile’ a ‘missing piece’ of the album

Lady Gaga’s upcoming seventh studio album promises to take fans on a deeply personal journey.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published December 19, the pop icon described the project — slated for release in February — as a genre-bending collection inspired by her life’s “chaos” and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

“Every song that I wrote, I just kept getting kind of swept away in these different dreams I was having about the past — almost like a recollection of all these bad decisions that I made in my life,” Gaga shared, adding, “But it ends in this very happy place.”

The album marks a bold return to pop for Gaga, who credits her fiancé, Michael Polansky, with encouraging her to dive back into the genre.

She teased fans with the lead single, Disease, a dark, dance-pop anthem released in November that landed at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally, the cinematic ballad Die with a Smile, a collaboration with Bruno Mars that topped the Billboard Global 200 for eight weeks, is set to be a centerpiece of the album.

“It’s a huge part of my album,” Gaga said of the duet. “It was like this missing piece… the idea of what we would do if the world was ending.”