Turns out all Lady Gaga had to do to get back on top is team up with another pop music superstar — a male one.
Gaga's duet with Bruno Mars, "Die With a Smile," has hit #1 on Billboard's Pop Airplay chart for the first time since she was on top in 2011 with "Born This Way." In doing so, she sets a new record for the longest time between number ones on that chart: 13 years, seven months and two weeks.
The record was previously held by Mariah Carey, who waited nine years, four months and three weeks between her Boyz II Men collab "One Sweet Day" in 1996 and "We Belong Together" in 2005.
Of course, that doesn't mean that Gaga was just sitting around. She reached the top 10 on the chart six times in the years between number ones, including with Ariana Grande on the 2020 duet "Rain On Me."
As for Bruno, this is his first time on top of the chart since 2018, when he did it with "Finesse," both figuratively and literally.
Gaga now has eight Pop Airplay number ones to her name, while Bruno has 10. The artist who's had the most — 13 — is Taylor Swift. The chart's existed since 1992. Speaking of Taylor, she, Gaga, Maroon 5 and Miley Cyrus are the only four acts to have hit #1 on that chart in the 2000s, '10s and '20s.
Meanwhile, Gaga's current solo song, "Disease," is #18 on the same chart. It's from her upcoming seventh album. "Die With a Smile," which recently earned Gaga and Bruno two Grammy nominations, is a one-off single.