Last week, Lady Gaga dropped a new album called “Harlequin.” It was a companion to “Joker: Folie a Deux,” which was supposed to be a hit movie.
But “Joker 2,” as we call it, has been unmitigated disaster at the box office, literally shunned by all the fans of the original hit movie.
The result is that “Harlequin,” a beautifully sung jazz album with two new songs, is dead, too. Today it dropped to number 97 on iTunes after one week. Sales for its second week were nil, leaving the total at under 30,000 copies.
Gaga must be furious, and rightly so. She worked hard on “Harlequin,” which contains some of her best work ever. But with the movie in shambles, Universal Music hasn’t lifted a finger to promote the collection. It’s dead on the vine.
The only thing that could help “Harlequin” now is for the Grammys to revive it in the jazz categories. The Oscars were supposed to come in to play here, but with the movie gone, Gaga’s original songs probably won’t make the final 5 for Best Song.
All that work, down the drain. What a mess.
Maybe now we know why Gaga released her Bruno Mars duet, “Die with a Smile,” right before “Joker 2.” And she has a new single from her 7th album coming before the end of October. She knew that “Harlequin” was going to relegated to Lost Gem status.
