Lady Gaga's Artful New Song Is Called "Shit"

So, Lady Gaga debuted a brand-new song at a fashion show. A bass-thumping, German-speaking, synth-friendly track whose title happens to be a word you can’t say on radio in America — at least, not in English. Oh, scheiße. Let’s analyze.

The song — which is a remix, technically — comes from her next album, and it played during Nicola Formichetti‘s Mugler men’s fashion show in Paris. Formichetti is well-known as both the creative director of Dazed & Confused and as one of Lady Gaga’s principal stylists. Formichetti had fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco direct this video, which naturally serves to advertise the Mugler brand. It stars Rico “Zombie Boy” Genest, a Montreal-based dude who has lately become Internet-famous for having tattooed his entire body to look like a skeleton. Look at Rico vogue.

Skull, check. Fruit, check. Give Genest a mirror, and he’d be a walking vanitas painting.

Genest’s trousers — presumably Mugler — look a lot like Rad Hourani’s famous unisex zipper pants.

Lady Gaga isn’t actually in this video. But her presence is everywhere. Look at Genest make a monster claw!

And drape his body in pearls — which as we know, is one of Gaga’s favorite things.

Also, face-shrouds.

Here’s the whole video — and the whole song. There’s already plenty of controversy over Lady Gaga’s lyrics. At one point in the German part, it kind of sounds like she says, “Ich liebe haus de Hitler,” but other fans insist she in fact sings, “Ich bin mir absolut klar.” (It sounds pretty clearly like the latter to us, not that we speak German or anything.)

The fan boards were ablaze as listeners tried to transcribe (and make sense of) the German lyrics. (The English lyrics seem to mostly revolve around…going out and wearing whatever you like.) But perhaps we should all be heeding Lady Gaga’s warning, “I don’t speak German/But I can if you like.” As one fan notes, “I’m native German. I’ve listened to it about 20 times and still cannot find any German word except for Scheiße and perhaps Fräulein.”