“The Dead Dance” is a song by American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga. A synth-pop and disco track, it was released as a single through Interscope Records on September 3, 2025, and was included on the digital reissue of her 2025 album Mayhem. She wrote and produced the track with Andrew Watt and Cirkut, and described its lyrics as inspired by a romantic breakup, reflecting a shift from despair to joy and resilience through dance.
“The Dead Dance” received positive reviews from journalists. The song is featured in the soundtrack for the second season of Wednesday (2025), in which Gaga also makes a guest appearance. Gaga performed “The Dead Dance” for the first time at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, with a staging that referenced its music video. It has charted within the top 20 in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom as well as the top 30 in Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
Wednesday was renewed for a second season and began filming in Ireland, according to Deadline Hollywood on May 7, 2024. Entertainment Weekly revealed on November 13 that Gaga had joined the cast in an undisclosed role. A year later, Gaga and Ortega appeared as special guests for Tudum, a pop culture event for streaming service Netflix, and performed a medley of “Zombieboy”, “Abracadabra”, and “Bloody Mary” on June 1, 2025. Gaga told Tudum.com that her involvement with Wednesday season 2 began when she was contacted about the show’s search for new music. She already had a fitting song in mind, which ultimately also secured her a role in the series. She explained: I immediately had a song in mind called ‘The Dead Dance’, and I had started working on it. But once I knew it was going to be for Wednesday, I decided that I was going to work on it even more, and I made it extra special for the show. To me, when you know that music and pop culture and Tim Burton all come together with this cast, that’s a very special recipe.
The music video for “The Dead Dance” was directed by Burton and produced by Gaga and Michael Polansky, alongside Burton and Natalie Testa. It was filmed at the Island of the Dolls in Mexico in mid-July 2025. The Express Tribune reported on July 10, that Gaga and Burton had been seen filming a music video on the Island of the Dolls, located in the south of Mexico City, Mexico. During the Giffoni Film Festival on July 25, Burton spoke about Gaga’s contribution to Wednesday and hinted that he had “done something else with her”. Following the premiere of Wednesday‘s second season, Variety reported on August 4 that Gaga and Burton filmed a music video for a song supposedly titled “Dead Dance”. Regarding his experience developing the video, Burton praised Gaga’s work and described her as “inspiring”, while also expressing his desire to collaborate with her again in the future.
In the United States, the track debuted at number forty on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated September 20, 2025, with 8.7 million official streams, 7.8 million in radio airplay audience, and 5,000 sold during the tracking week of September 5-11. This achievement marked marked Gaga’s 29th career top-forty entry on the chart and the fourth from Mayhem, after “Die with a Smile”, “Disease”, and “Abracadabra”. Within Canada, it peaked at number 28 on the Canadian Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, it entered at number thirteen on the UK singles chart, marking the second-highest debut of the week and Gaga’s 33rd top-40 song in the country. This made Mayhem become her second album to place five songs within the top 40 in the UK.
