Thank You to This Man

Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Typically, pop music is a girls and gays affair. The taxonomy of update accounts — Pop Crave versus Pop Tingz versus Pop Base versus Pop Buzz — is above the pay grade of straight boyfriends, who tend to kill the vibe at concerts by standing idly with their hands in their pockets. Mostly, they just take up space. But today, we must say “thank you” to a man: Michael Polansky, the normie fiancé of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, or Lady Gaga.

Why are we expressing gratitude toward a Harvard-graduated tech investor who wears sweaters and lanyards? Well, he’s the one who convinced his fiancée to return to her pop-music origins after years of dabbling in jazz, country, and show tunes. He’s even credited as a writer on “Disease,” the first single from Gaga’s still-untitled seventh studio album coming in February. It’s a very “Gaga ooh la la” return to form.

Gaga has been booked and busy as an actor, starring in A Star Is Born, House of Gucci, and more recently, Joker: Folie à Deux. While she’s been occupied in Hollywood, flamboyant young pop up-and-comers like Chappell Roan have been crowned “the new Gaga.” In a recent Vogue cover interview, Gaga credited Polansky for shaking some sense into her. “He was like, ‘Babe. I love you. You need to make pop music.’” Polansky added modestly, “On the Chromatica tour, I saw a fire in her; I wanted to help her keep that alive all the time and just start making music that made her happy.” Now Gaga is back and freaky as ever, stomping out of Arkham asylum and onto the charts. The clobbering electropop of “Disease” marks the return of The Fame–era Gaga, the campy, theatrical weirdo we know and love. The Oscar committee can wait — paws up, little monsters!