When Lady Gaga commands us to “Pose!” in Runway, the echo of 1990 is unmistakable: explore the sophisticated sonic and psychological dialogue between Gaga’s latest evolution and the enduring legacy of Madonna’s Vogue.
We play the official video for Runway—the single by Lady Gaga and Doechii, released as part of The Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack—and somehow, it feels like witnessing something that has already happened. In reality, things change, yet Lady Gaga has always been the best at casting a particular spell: winking at the past while throwing open the doors to the future.
This time, it isn’t just a matter of sound. That is there, of course: the refined production by Andrew Watt, Bruno Mars, D’Mile, and Cirkut has transformed Runway into a small, evergreen masterpiece of dance-pop. A house-inflected sonic tapestry meeting, once again, pop dynamics that mirror the times they inhabit; and if, on one hand, it feels to many like a new immersion into the Eurodance sound of the 90s, the younger generation cannot deny the fresh character of this new single.
To the old foxes, however, a subtle reference has not escaped notice: within Runway lingers the restless spirit of 90s Madonna. And as the song flows, and we continue to wonder if it is merely our own impression, at a certain point Lady Gaga pauses and issues the command. “Pose.” And suddenly, it feels as if we are witnessing a definitive passing of the torch.
“Pose”: The Explicit Homage That Leaves the Old Rivalry Behind
No, it is no mirage. The sonic texture of Lady Gaga’s Runway is a veiled tribute to that other immortal pop star who mastered the union of dance and pop: the early Madonna, explicitly cited by Gaga for once. For those who might have missed the last thirty years of pop lexicon, that Pose is a fragment of history snatched directly from Vogue, the single released by the Queen of Pop in 1990.
Back then, too, thirty-six years prior, it was a song extracted from an iconic soundtrack of the era, Dick Tracy. For that musical accompaniment, Madonna was drawing upon voguing—that specific 80s dance style popularly performed to house music. And now, a generation and a half later, “Vogue” becomes the keyword linking the musical realm inhabited by Lady Gaga with the central theme of another box-office-breaking sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Yet, Lady Gaga’s career began in a world that viewed her as an impertinent new star, seemingly intent on usurping Madonna’s place in the collective imagination. In 2012, Ciccone entered into an explicit critique of the young Lady Gaga, famously branding Born This Way a “reductive” reference to her own Express Yourself. The bickering endured, and even then, it was clear: another spicy Italian-American had arrived to compete for the crown. A landscape, moreover, that saw few other contenders, save for the title-holder who had always deserved that label.
It took years to resolve this rivalry. Lady Gaga did not much fight the theory that saw her as a new star retracing Madonna’s steps from years before, yet she had no intention of appearing as a clone. Ultimately, there were no compelling reasons to make that Born This Way misunderstanding the battle of a lifetime: Lady Gaga has always recognized Madonna as a profound inspiration, and Madonna, in turn, respects the courage Gaga demonstrates in her pop mission. Throughout the Lady Gaga years, Madonna was no longer seeking to remain on the throne of contemporary pop at all costs: her late releases were meant instead to remind the world she was still there, with glory behind her and eyes fixed on the new promises looking up from below.
And so, in a sense, Lady Gaga—pausing in 2026 to explicitly “strike the pose” in the Runway video—seems to want to close the book once and for all. Yes, Madonna’s history and symbols are part of my pop character. But no one can speak of clones anymore.
The Modern Catwalk of Lady Gaga and Doechii
In the official video for Runway, Lady Gaga and Doechii emerge as the protagonists of an avant-garde catwalk defined by futuristic forms. No audience, only the camera, the choreography, and these two icons of the pop landscape defining modern imagery in their own divergent ways: the former with nearly twenty years of success behind her, the latter much younger but already perfectly capable of stealing the spotlight—as demonstrated by the now-iconic shot from the latest Levi’s Beyond the Backside campaign.
Ultimately, “being fashion” has always assumed the same kind of shapes. Seeing Lady Gaga and Doechii dressed in bizarre attire in this procession, which seems plucked from a science fiction film, reminds us that for things to evolve, they do not necessarily have to change: the world of music, after all, is the art of rewriting known rules from new perspectives. And so, observing in Runway this thin, shocking red line that unites the Madonna that was, the Gaga that is, and the Doechii that will be, feels like the confirmation of something happening once more: pop language taking a step forward while looking back with pride at its own past.
Pose
I ain’t scared of no cameras
Born for the runway
