"Die With A Smile" is a soul-rock duet between Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. The song finds the pair realizing how much they mean to each other - a lot! They're both willing to die in each other's arms.
Bruno kicks things off by recounting a bad dream where he had to say goodbye to Gaga only to wake up with the sudden gut-punch realization of just how much she means to him. It's the kind of epiphany that makes you want to hold someone close and never let go.
Then Gaga swoops in for the second verse, adding her own layer to this melodramatic love tale. She reveals that the couple has been through the wringer, fighting and losing sight of what they have together.
From there, the two bounce off each other's vocals with all the chemistry of a well-matched tennis pair, belting out their renewed commitment to one another in a way that makes you believe true love really does conquer all, or at least makes for one heck of a duet.
The collaboration was the first time the two pop titans have worked together. It all began when Mars, tinkering away in his studio on some new material, decided to extend an invitation to Gaga. "Bruno and I have a lot of mutual respect for each other," Gaga explained. "We'd been talking about collaborating for a while. I was wrapping up my own album in Malibu when, after a long day, he called me over to his studio to listen to something he'd been working on."
Gaga arrived around midnight, that magical hour when creativity either collapses in a heap or soars into the stratosphere. When she heard what Mars had been cooking up, she was blown away. "We stayed up all night," she said, "and finished writing and recording the song."
Gaga and Mars share writing credits with producers Dernst "D'Mile" Emile II and Andrew Watt, as well as James Fauntleroy. The song is a soulful ballad, akin to Mars' side project with Anderson Paak, Silk Sonic. D'Mile served as co-producer on their
An Evening with Silk Sonic album, and Fauntleroy co-penned three of its tracks. While Andrew Watt is a new addition to the Mars musical family, he previously worked with Gaga on her collaboration with The Rolling Stones, "
Sweet Sounds Of Heaven."
The music video for "Die With a Smile" is a nostalgic throwback to classic country performances. Directed by Daniel Ramos and Bruno Mars, the visual transports viewers to a 1970s television studio. Clad in matching light blue suits and red shirts, a cowboy-hatted Mars plays the guitar while Gaga sits at the piano. During the final verse, Gaga sings with a cigarette casually dangling from her lips.
Gaga and Mars debuted their song live on August 15, 2024 during Mars' show for the grand opening of the Intuit Dome, the new Inglewood home of the Los Angeles Clippers. The duo took the stage for the encore in similar outfits to the ones they wore in the song's music video, with Mars on guitar and Gaga at the keys. It was noted that Gaga didn't attempt to sing while smoking a cigarette!
"Die With A Smile" set a new record on Spotify when it became the fastest track to hit one billion streams. The song reached the milestone in 96 days, surpassing Jungkook and Latto's "
Seven," which got there in 108 days.
"Die With a Smile" rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in its 20th week on the chart. The song was Gaga's sixth chart-topper and Mars' ninth.
Bruno Mars originally came up with the theme for the "Die With a Smile" hook - being next to someone as the world ends - but he and D'Mile weren't sure how it should sound. They went through two or three different versions before landing on the right one.
"That was actually record-breaking because usually we do like 100 versions of a song," D'Mile
told Billboard with a laugh. "But this one came pretty quick. One day, he came in with the chords, and a day later, he had the chords to the hook. Then things started taking off, like, 'Wait, this could be something.'"
By late summer 2023 they had the song in a solid place but weren't sure what to do with it. They held onto it until Andrew Watt, who was working with Lady Gaga on her
Mayhem album, reached out to Mars. When he played "Die With a Smile" for him and Gaga, the star instantly loved it.
Gaga arrived at the studio in the hour before midnight, and according to D'Mile, did something he had never seen an artist do before. "After hearing the song, she wanted to write out the sheet music. So we showed her what the chords were, and she wrote them out. Then she got on the piano to play and sing, just to get the feel of it. And then we cut it right then and there. It was just so cool to see someone like her bring out a pen and paper and actually write out the chart."
"Die With A Smile" took the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2025.
"I'm so honored to be a part of this song with you," Bruno told Gaga when they accepted the award. "I'm so honored to have a small part in your giant musical legacy, and I truly believe that God gave us this song to sing together."
Gaga replied, calling Bruno "an incredible human being" and "a musician for the ages."
The pair performed "
California Dreamin'" earlier in the ceremony in celebration of the city of Los Angeles, which was devastated by fires weeks earlier.
"Die With A Smile" won Best Collaboration at the MTV Video Music Awards, where Bruno Mars also got Song Of The Year for "
APT.," his collaboration with Rosé. Gaga also took home Artist Of The Year, as well as Best Direction and Best Art Direction for "
Abracadabra," making her the top winner of the night with four awards.
"Die With A Smile" was Spotify's top song globally in 2025 after garnering more than 1.7 billion streams throughout the year.
Bruno Mars had been developing "Die With A Smile" with Fauntleroy and Dernst "D'Mile" Emile II, but the song was nearly abandoned. The turning point came when they learned Lady Gaga would be starring in
Joker: Folie à Deux. Mars saw "Die With A Smile" as a potential fit for the film or as material for Gaga's planned Harlequin project.
"He was such a genius for pulling that out of the back of his subconscious memory because of the timing of that movie, which is also how Lady Gaga came into his mind as a collaborator,"
Fauntleroy told Variety.
Even when they later found out the song wouldn't be used for the movie, Mars had already initiated the collaboration, "because the power of Bruno compels you," Fauntleroy joked.
The team eventually linked up with Andrew Watt, who was working with Gaga on Mayhem at the time. Mars invited everyone to his Malibu studio, where Gaga took charge of the creative process.
"She was like, 'Let's go to the piano,'" Fauntleroy said. He recalled being surprised not just by her playing, but by her meticulous approach: she learned the chords on the spot, asked for pen and paper, and wrote them down like a music student working through a lesson.
"This is unheard of. She learned the f---ing song, dude, right there," he said. "They were performing, singing it together. And that's when I should have known it was going to be something special."
Watt described the recording session to Variety as fast and intuitive, comparing it to classic pop collaborations. "It was some Quincy-Michael s--t," he said, comparing it to Michael Jackson albums like Thriller that were produced by Quincy Jones. "Bruno jumping in the booth, then her jumping in the booth and going back and forth. There was a point where we were all on guitars and she was on the piano. It was like being in Fleetwood Mac or something."
