Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Of course, a surprise album: just the kind of trick that a singing supervillain would pull. Harley Quinn, to be precise — the character played by Lady Gaga in Joker: Folie à Deux, movie sequel to the 2019 box office triumph Joker. Harlequin is a “companion album”, in Gaga’s description, its existence revealed with a metaphorical swish of the cape a few days ago. Cue gasps from all. Another album of supper-club jazz standards — can Lady G get away with it?Bar two originals, the material is drawn from the Great American Songbook, mostly low-hanging chestnuts such as “That’s Life” and “Good Morning”. These play an audacious role in the film, sung by Gaga and her opposite number Joaquin Phoenix, aka Joker. The joke here is on the incels who notoriously found a parable of male rage in the 2019 film. Imagine their consternation when the sequel hits the multiplexes and they find themselves confronted by Lady Gaga singing Broadway show tunes. But her followers will know the score.Gaga’s previous American Songbook outings were made in the impeccable company of Tony Bennett, with whom she released Cheek to Cheek in 2014 and Love for Sale in 2021. Both underlined Gaga’s range and charisma. A star once branded (wrongly) as a Madonna wannabe showed herself to have the pipes of Liza Minnelli. Harlequin is as much a companion to those albums as it is to Joker: Folie à Deux.This time, our heroine has the spotlight to herself. She delivers the songs alone, not (as in the film) with Phoenix as her duet partner. The gleefully chaotic world of Joker bubbles up in the manic big-band clamour of “That’s Entertainment” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now”. A tenderly sung smile “Smile” stands out amid the belting and pizzazz. The two original songs are an expertly orchestrated MGM musical pastiche, “Folie à Deux”, and “Happy Mistake”, a pop ballad that teeters entertainingly at the edge of psychotic breakdown. The standards are a retread, but Gaga’s performances are outstanding.★★★☆☆Released by Interscope
