Lady Gaga’s infectious new single Abracadabra is a return to form for the Grammy-winning star – in more ways than one.

Not only does the heavy, industrial-inspired pop production hark back to her The Fame Monster and Born This Way days, and the accompanying video is easily among the best of her career, but the song’s chorus also includes some of the nonsense “jibberish” style singing previously heard on the early hits like Bad Romance and Poker Face.

Or, at least, that’s how it might appear. But Gaga being Gaga, she managed to sneak a hidden meaning into the mix.

“Abracadabra, amor-ooh-na-na, abracadabra, morta-ooh-ga-ga,” she sings on the chorus, and while it might seem like she’s just put words together to get us dancing, there’s actually more to the song than first appears.

“Amor” and “morta” are both Latin terms referring to “love” and “death”, the song’s two main themes, which are both overarching ideas Gaga will explore on her much-hyped new album Mayhem.

She also says in the final line of the chorus that the character known as the “lady in red” sings “in her own tongue, ‘death and love’ tonight”, confirming the Latin terms’ use is very much deliberate.

Gaga recently told Elle that Abracadabra is “about facing the challenge of life and the challenge of the night and finding the magic in it all”.

Pressed on what she means by “the challenge of the night”, the Applause singer explained: “When you have to face the world, the people around you, your life, your unique circumstances, your unique fabric in the world. And when you feel challenged with really showing everybody who you are.”

Later in the interview, Gaga was asked about the “lady in red” character, which she said represents “your internal monologue” and “all of you that puts you to the test”.

“In a lot of ways, the song is about dealing with that challenge to yourself and very often the world around us can reflect it back to us as well,” she added. “I wanted to explore the question, ‘What does it feel like to thrive and not just be surviving all the time?’.”

Both Abracadabra and its accompanying music video premiered in an ad break of Sunday night’s Grammys ceremony.

At the time of writing, Abracadabra is the number one trending music video on YouTube, while the track itself premiered with the biggest solo streaming figures of her career, beating her previous single Disease.

While Gaga’s new song can currently be found in Spotify’s global top 10, her 2024 hit Die With A Smile, featuring Bruno Mars, is still at number one.

Abracadabra, Disease and Die With A Smile will all be featured on Gaga’s next studio album, Mayhem, which debuts next month.

Gaga told Vogue last year about how it was her fiancé Michael Polansky who encouraged her to throw herself back into a pop sound on her album.

“Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record,” she claimed. “He was like, ‘Babe. I love you. You need to make pop music’.”

He also told the outlet: “Like anyone would do for the person they love, I encouraged her to lean in to the joy of it.

“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.”