Bruno Mars Almost Scrapped ‘Die With a Smile’ Until This Lady Gaga Revelation Changed Everything

This year, “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for best pop duo/group performance — but apparently, the track almost didn’t see the light of day.

In an interview with Variety published Thursday (Dec. 4), producers James Fauntleroy and Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II revealed that after first writing parts of the song three years ago, the Silk Sonic star scrapped it and forgot about it entirely. That is, until Mars learned that Mother Monster would be starring in Joker: Folie a Deux opposite Joaquin Phoenix, which he thought would be the perfect project for the long-shelved ballad.

“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 the publication.

The team had initially thought “Die With a Smile” could pair well with the film or Gaga’s accompanying concept album, Harlequin, but it ended up as a cut on the singer-actress’ Billboard 200-topping Mayhem album instead. “When we found out that wasn’t gonna be a thing, he had already kind of started the ball rolling, because the power of Bruno compels you,” Fauntleroy continued.

Gaga apparently loved “Die With a Smile” as soon as she heard it. “I knew she could play the piano, but watching her actually sit down like a musician and learn the chords, so much so that she actually asked for a pen and paper and wrote the chords down … This is unheard of,” the hitmaker added to Variety. “She learned the f–king song, dude, right there. And they were performing, singing it together. And that’s when I should have known it was going to be something special.”

In addition to its Hot 100 reign, “Die With a Smile” spent an eye-popping 18 weeks atop the Billboard Global 200. Gaga is now up for a bevy of fresh Grammy awards, including album of the year for Mayhem.

But in a 2024 interview with Billboard, producer Andrew Watt — who also helped out on the song — revealed that commercial and critical accolades were the last things on Gaga and Mars’ minds when they jumped into the studio together. “This was a pure, organic thing that both these artists who respect each other so much wanted to do together,” Watt said at the time. “This was about the love of making great music.”

Of watching the two superstars do a surprise performance of the duet at Mars’ Los Angeles concert that August, Watt added at the time, “It was this wow factor of ‘Holy crap, [they’re] like the Avengers of music.”