Lady Gaga is back to making standards on her sixth (and a half) album, Harlequin, and it’s the first time she’s doing it without Tony Bennett. After two collaborative albums of standards — Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale — this time she’s Joker-fying the genre by singing in a manner inspired by her Joker: Folie à Deux character,

"When Tony passed away, when we found out, we were in our kitchen. The minute it happened, I looked around and realized his art was all around us," Gaga tells EW.

Lady Gaga says Tony Bennett always admired the risks she took in her career. The 38-year-old popstar and the late singer - who died in 2023 at the age of 96 - enjoyed a close friendship and a successful professional partnership in the years before he died and Gaga revealed that Tony was always supportive of her clothes and "theatrical" stage performances.