Her new album is a work of self-citation, rummaging around in Gaga’s own past for inspiration. It’s also, somehow, the freshest collection of songs she has released in years.

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Mar. 22, we look at whether the latest album from one of the century's greatest pop stars will return her to the top of the chart for the first time in five years.

It is as complete a statement about who Lady Gaga is in 2025 as anything could be. MAYHEM repositions Gaga as a dance diva heavily indebted to the icons who came before her to an audience as likely to know her for wearing a meat dress as for performing with Tony Bennett.

“Mayhem” puts the lie to that idea: Brash, squirmy, full of detailed grooves and expertly crafted hooks, it’s a winning reclamation of her trademark sound — her best since 2011’s “Born This Way” and precisely the album you’d want her to drop before headlining Coachella, as Lady Gaga will do next month.

She dances on the line between clever self-referentiality and less inspired rehashing on her new LP, committing to the over-the-top excess that first made her a star.

The star singer returns with her first solo LP since 2020, and it’s full of typically irresistible hooks and her signature sense of drama.

It's like she's casted a magic spell. With "Abracadabra" - the third single on Lady Gaga's newly released album "Mayhem" - she's now suddenly back in the charts after a long absence. The black and white cover shows an edgy Gaga near shattered glass.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are marveling at the high-wire act Gaga pulled off with her seventh studio album.