Elton John joins Lady Gaga on her ‘killer’ new album

Sir Elton John is the latest star in a growing number of music industry heavyweights to confirm his involvement in Lady Gaga’s forthcoming studio album.

The news comes as Mark Ronson confirmed that Gaga attended recording sessions at his London flat over Christmas, and Gaga revealing her fifth studio album would be out sometime this year.

John, a longtime friend of Gaga, who also asked her to be godmother to his children, told Zane Rowe during an interview on Beats 1 he was due to commence several song writing sessions with the ‘Poker Face’ singer this week.

The 68-year-old said he’d already heard some early material from the yet-to-be-named album, which follows her 2014 Tony Bennett collaboration Cheek to Cheek.

“I’ve heard two songs, which are killer,” he said.

“They’re just great songs. It’s like back to the early stuff of hers – like ‘You and I’ and the Bruce Springsteen one, as I always call it, ‘Bad Romance’.”

While admitting that Gaga has made some “poor creative decisions” with her critically lukewarm album ARTPOP, John said he still held faith in her abilities as a songwriter.

“ARTPOP was not a great idea,” he said.

“It was not a good album and I think she would admit that. Then in the midst of that, she did three things, which were kind of amazing. She did the whole tour and album with Tony Bennett, which did amazingly well. She sang the Julie Andrews tribute at the Oscars, which everybody loved. And she was on American Horror Story.

“I think she’s a great writer. To me, she is Stefani Germanotta and I love her and I care about her – she’s godmother to my two children. And I want her to go and make a kind of simple, fabulous, great song record. Maybe like Tapestry, but her version.

“I’ve heard two of the songs and they’re not complex… They’re not complex arrangements, but they are great songs. It’s all about the song.”