Marry the Night

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Lore & Background

The song's creation began while Gaga and Fernando Garibay were on the road for The Monster Ball Tour. After hearing "Dance in the Dark" open their concerts, Gaga wanted to outdo that specific feeling of energy. In an interview with NME, she explained the main inspiration was Whitney Houston, stating, "This song is about me going back to New York." She described writing it about the courage required to say, "I hate Hollywood, I just wanna live in Brooklyn and make music." Garibay developed a church-bell-inspired sound on his own, which moved Gaga to tears when he played it for her on the studio bus. She meditated briefly before recording the vocals immediately after finishing the lyrics, completing the process within an hour. The track was later mixed at The Mix Room in Burbank, California.

In Their Own Story

The music video, directed by Gaga and filmed entirely in New York City, narrates her experience of being dropped from Def Jam Recordings before signing with Interscope Records. Visuals include scenes inside a clinic, a dance studio, her own apartment, and on the rooftop of a car in a parking lot. Throughout the clip, she wears outfits by Calvin Klein Collection, Yves Saint Laurent, and Stéphane Rolland. The narrative follows her journey from rejection to rebirth as an artist signed to her current label. Prior to its official release, the video was teased using stills and previews. Critics praised the clip for being creative and ambitious, specifically lauding its strong narrative theme.

Reader's Guide

"Marry the Night" serves as a tribute to Gaga's love of nightlife and partying while acting as a homage to her hometown. Musically, it follows a common time signature with a slow intro tempo of 64 beats per minute that shifts into a driving pop beat of 132 beats per minute. Composed in A minor, the song features a funk-rock influenced breakdown where Gaga sings, "New York is not just a tan that you'll never lose." The chorus includes her stuttering the title line repeatedly. Although planned as the lead single and later the third, it was released as the fifth and initially final single from Born This Way until "Bloody Mary" in 2022. Gaga performed the song at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, The X Factor, and closed her Born This Way Ball tour with it in 2013. She also recorded an acoustic version for A Very Gaga Thanksgiving.

Did You Know?

• The song was initially released for promotion on the online game FarmVille six days before Born This Way came out.
• Gaga recorded the entire vocal track within one hour after meditating for a few minutes and asking for a microphone.
• The electronic church bells in the song were intended to draw parallels between fans and members of a religion or cult.
• The official artwork features Gaga sitting atop a rain-soaked car while another vehicle burns in the background.
• It was released as the fifth single on November 11, 2011, remaining the final single until "Bloody Mary" was released in 2022.