The Queen (Lady Gaga song)

"The Queen"
Song by Lady Gaga
from the album Born This Way
Released	2011
Genre	Disco, Rock
Length	5:17
Label	Kon Live Streamline Interscope
Songwriter(s)	Lady Gaga Fernando Garibay
Producer(s)	Fernando Garibay Lady Gaga

Listen to the song The Queen (Lady Gaga song) or Buy it on amazon

"The Queen" is a song by American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga that was included on the extended version of her second studio album, Born This Way, released in 2011. Gaga composed and produced it with the help of music producer Fernando Garibay. It is a disco song featuring rock influences and with a strong presence of the electric guitar and the bell. Its lyrics have bravery and feminism as themes.

After the album's release, it received mostly positive reviews from contemporary music critics. "The Queen" ranked 132nd on the Korean South Korean Gaon Chart after selling 272,222 digital copies as well as reaching the positions 150 and 7 in the UK Singles Chart and Hitparade Rock Songs respectively. It also managed to place at number 36 in The ultimate ranking of Lady Gaga songs, created by Rolling Stone magazine in 2011. Likewise, the song was included in the repertoire of The Born This Way Ball Tour, third musical tour of the singer.

Composition and production

Lady Gaga performing "The Queen" during her tour The Born This Way Ball (2013).

Lady Gaga and Fernando Garibay wrote and produced "The Queen". The recording sessions were in charge of Dave Rusell at Sing Sing Studios in Canberra, Australia. Rusell was also in charge of the remix of Born This Way at The Mix Room Burbank Studios in California. "The Queen" is a disco song that features a range of different musical influences, such as rock, and an 80s style. Its production includes bells, electric guitars and piano. According to the record on "The Queen" published by the website Discogs, Gaga's voice spans a vocal register from B₄ to G₅ sharp.

A day before the album's release, Gaga posted on her Twitter account that the song "is about bravery. Not being afraid to be great." "The Queen" begins with a bells instrumental; after the interlude ends, it kicks off with the verse "Oh, tonight I'm gonna show them what I'm made of, oh./The killer queen inside me's coming to say 'hello'." After the first verse follows the feminist movement influenced refrain: "I can be the queen that's inside of me." Gaga continues the track using musical dynamics on the syllables "queen, queen, queen". The track ends with the verse, "Starry night/Come inside me, like never before/Don't forget me when I come crying to Heaven's door/I will fly/On a challenger across the sky/Like a phoenix, so you can remind them of the dream I bore", accompanied with a electric guitar solo.

Reception

Critics reviews

"The Queen" received mixed reviews, mostly positive, from contemporary music critics. Many of the reviews published about the track agreed that it is excessively long. American writer and critic Robert Christgau, in his review for Expert Witness on the extended version of Born This Way, argued that, "Of the three additional songs, only "The Queen" would make a decent B-side." Emily Exton, of Popdust, called it "a dancefloor anthem for all those who don't need a crown to see themselves as true kings". She also criticized its extended length, praised the use of electric guitars and compared it positively to the single "The Edge of Glory". Likewise, Carlos Marcia of Terra questioned, "Is this a self-proclamation? If so then I agree, when this song starts playing, I'm already convinced that Gaga is the new queen of pop" he also described it as "the perfect pop song." Chris Elliott of People's World compared it to the work of Bruce Springsteen and commented that Springsteen's influence on Gaga's lyrics is very noticeable. Cristin Maher of Pop Crush compared "The Queen" to the music of the 1980s, also adding that it "has feminist lyrics that are inspiring". Amy Sciarretto of the same company gave the track an individual review, where she deemed it "an epic dancefloor song" and also noted that:

Full of regal energy, Gaga's life-affirming lyrical sentiments and fast, pulsating beats, 'The Queen' could easily be used in a commercial, and it's quite sonically similar to the far superior 'Edge of Glory' from 'Born This Way.' We're not suggesting that Gaga recycled this song; it's just not as good as the album cut that is 'Edge of Glory' and there is probably a reason 'The Queen' didn't make the standard version's cut. Gaga declares "I can be the queen you need me to be" and it's certainly a proclamation to the all the little monsters who look to her for support, guidance and encouragement and who view her as their royal ruler, metaphorically speaking, of course. She sounds a wee bit like Gwen Stefani when she delivers her "Woah oh oh" parts, too. Then here's this tropical guitar part that helps close out the song. It's rare and interesting, just like our Mother Monster herself.

On the other hand, music editor Crystal of the Autostraddle site gave the track a mixed review, where he added: "A short pop song is a good pop song. Unfortunately this pop song is 5 minutes and 17 seconds long, which seems to me 1.73 minutes longer than it needs to be. The only part I liked is the unexpected march that changes halfway through the track." Evan Sawdey of Popmatters, in his review of Born This Way, commented that the track's chorus was weak and forgettable. Carlos Fresneda of El Mundo described it as "One of the "leftover" tracks that doesn't really add anything to the album and only contributes to unnecessarily prolonging the listening until the final stretch". Moreover, editor Becky Bain of Idolator did a review on how religious the themes of Born This Way are, in that article she mentioned, "I'm not convinced if this track isn't also about the death of Alexander McQueen, particularly in the line "Don't forget me when I come crying to the gates of Heaven"." Sean Adams of the Drowned in Sound website described "The Queen" as a filler track.

In 2020, Richard S. He wrote an article for the site Vulture about each of the singer's 109 songs. The critic placed "The Queen" within Lady Gaga's 95 best songs and compared her voice to that of singer Pat Benatar and considered it a synthetic rock song.

Chart performance

"The Queen" entered the top charts in South Korea, United Kingdom and Switzerland. In Korea, the song debuted at number 132 on the South Korean Gaon Chart, where it stayed for a single week and reached 272,222 copies sold. In the United Kingdom during the first week of June 2011, "The Queen" debuted at number 150 via the UK Singles Chart commercial count. In Switzerland, the song managed to reach the number 7 spot on the annual Hitparade Rock Songs song popularity count after selling 5,200 digital copies in 2011.

Live performances and social impact

Gaga during the fifth act of Artrave: The Artpop Ball Tour (2014) in which she performed "The Queen" after reading the manuscript.

"The Queen" was added to the repertoire of The Born This Way Ball, the singer's third musical tour, where Lady Gaga performed the track from her piano along with two of her guitarists. The track was performed after "Bad Kids" and before the single "Yoü and I". In 2013, during a performance in Los Angeles, California, the singer stated that the song was dedicated towards her friends in the LGBT community. On May 20, 2014, during the Artrave: The Artpop Ball Tour, a fan of the singer threw a note on stage where she explained that her sister suffered domestic violence and asked her to perform a song to support her. By way of response, Gaga sang "The Queen" as soon as she finished reading the manuscript.

Before committing suicide, Jamey Rodemeyer, a fan of the singer, posted on his Facebook account a verse from "The Queen": "Don't forget me when I come crying to the gates of Heaven". Rodemeyer wrote about her problems on her accounts on various social networks, where aggressive comments inciting his suicide were found. After what happened, Gaga announced via her official Twitter account that she would meet with President Barack Obama to discuss bullying.

Charts

Weekly charts

Weekly chart performance for "The Queen"

Country	Chart	Peak position
2011
South Korea	South Korean Gaon Chart	132
United Kingdom	UK Singles Chart	150

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for "The Queen"

Country	Chart	Peak position
2011
Switzerland	Hitparade Rock Songs	7

Credits and personnel

• Lead vocals - Lady Gaga

• Electric guitar - Kareem "Jesus" Devlin

• Bells - Paul Pavao

• Recording and Mixing - Dave Russell

• Production - Fernando Garibay

• Mastering - Gene Grimaldi

• Lyrics - Lady Gaga, Fernando Garibay

• Piano - Lady Gaga

Sources: Allmusic and Discogs.

External links

• "The Queen" Official Audio
• "The Queen" Official Lyrics

This article "The Queen (Lady Gaga song)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:The Queen (Lady Gaga song). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Swag It Out
• Nëse vdes
• Victory (punjabi song)
• Zombified (song)
• Do Ya Thang (Rihanna song)
• Teri Gali
• Wait (M83 song)

---