Lady Gaga’s ‘Artpop Act II’ has been shelved – and Little Monsters are divided: ‘Crying my eyes out’
Lady Gaga performs onstage during The ARTPOP Ball tour opener. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
Lady Gaga might live for the applause, but there will be no encore when it comes to her divisive 2013 album ARTPOP. The album’s much-rumoured follow up is no more.
Little Monsters have spent the last decade patiently waiting for the album’s second outing, dubbed ARTPOP Act II, to drop, after Gaga herself teased its potential release.
Responding to a fan back in October 2013, before the original ARTPOP had even hit the shelves, Mother Monster revealed plans for a sister album.
In the 10 years since, during which Gaga has dropped albums Joanne and Chromatica, ARTPOP‘s producer DJ White Shadow suggested that a follow up could still land at some point.
Yet now, the DJ – also known as DJWS – has poured cold water on the idea. In a post on his Instagram story on Sunday (16 April), he said he no longer wanted to talk about the album at all.
“No longer talking about ARTPOP. I am officially finished,” he wrote. “Don’t ask me about it. Don’t talk to me about it.”
The road to a potential ARTPOP Act II has been long and winding, with the most promising hint of the album’s existence coming last November, when DJWS said he would “honour” the record by releasing “something special” on ARTPOP’s 10th anniversary.
“You have my promise that I will have something special for you on this day [11 November] next year. I will honour this record as you have, forever,” he wrote in an Instagram post, before adding that he wouldn’t remove the post until November 2023 – 10 years since ARTPOP’s release.
However, following his most recent message regarding the album, the post has been deleted.
The rumour mill also went into overdrive back in 2021, when Gaga herself addressed a viral fan petition to get the album’s follow-up released.
In a tweet, Gaga wrote: “The petition to #buyARTPOPoniTunes for a volume II has inspired such a tremendous warmth in my heart … Thank you for celebrating something that once felt like destruction.
“We always believed it was ahead of its time. Years later turns out, sometimes, artists know. And so do little monsters.”
News that the follow up is now dead in the water has sent shockwaves through the Lady Gaga community, with some fans calling 2023 a year of Gaga “drought”.
“This is sad tbh,” wrote one fan. “ARTPOP was a very special time for me since during that era it was the only positive thing in my life, so it would be great to get some extra stuff. Maybe 20 years from now.”
Others, however, are revelling in the fact that they can finally move on from the endless teases.
“A sad as it is, we all know that ARTPOP era also holds a lot of pain and trauma for [Gaga] and I can understand if she doesn’t wanna go back,” wrote one Little Monster.
“She’s wanting to make sure the audience has their focus on new music she’s making,” said another.
Before new music, though, Gaga is currently working on Joker follow up Joker: Folie à Deux, and implementing America’s culture policy alongside president Joe Biden.
