If you can ignore all of the absurdity happening in our country, this week is an extremely exciting one. In fact, it’s maybe the most excited I’ve been for anything in half a decade. Why, you ask? Because Lady Gaga’s seventh studio album, titled Mayhem, comes out tomorrow night. The Academy Award and 14-time Grammy winner has already released three songs from the album and teased a handful of others, and every day I wake up hoping that she’ll have given us a new nugget of info or snippet to listen to.
Today my wishes came true, as ESPN released an official promo video for the 2025 Formula One season that starts next weekend, and it uses one of the songs from Gaga’s new album that we hadn’t heard yet. Not only that, but ESPN announced this is part of a season-long partnership with Gaga that will see other tracks from the album spotlighted during races.
The new track in question is called “Garden of Eden,” and it sounds like an absolute banger, reminiscent of some of Gaga’s early The Fame-era unreleased songs that us Little Monsters have been obsessing over for nearly two decades now. The promo video itself is pretty unremarkable — it would be much better if Gaga was actually in it — but that’s OK. ESPN describes Mayhem as blending “eclectic energy that first captivated Gaga’s fans with a fresh and fearless artistic spirit. Rooted in the concept of chaos and transformation, the album is an unapologetic celebration of music’s ability to unite, provoke, and heal.” So it’s exactly like Formula One, then.
Shopping, clubbing, nightlife, food, hanging out
This isn’t the first time Gaga has partnered up with F1, either. One of the most iconic Gaga memes comes from a promo video she did in 2009 for the Singapore Grand Prix, which held the inaugural F1 Rocks concert with headliners like Beyoncé, The Black Eyed Peas, N.E.R.D. and No Doubt, with Lindsay Lohan as the host. While Gaga didn’t perform at the F1 Rocks concert, she did perform at a nightclub afterparty following the race.
Why Singapore? The prior year’s Grand Prix was F1’s first night race ever, so in 2009 the series really leaned into it. Gaga’s promo video is so perfectly campy, so un-F1-like, and I still recite lines from it with my friends to this day. I mean, who doesn’t love all the important stuff she mentions?
In 2011, Gaga performed at the F1 Rocks concert following the Indian Grand Prix, and absolutely slayed it, obviously. F1 Rocks isn’t really a thing anymore, though most races have plenty of performances from DJs, singers, and bands, some of which get televised. Hopefully we’ll see her make appearances at some F1 races during the 2025 season, which kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix on March 15. She is a certified car enthusiast, after all.
