Lady Gaga recreates 'Alejandro' scenes, reuses her own archived costumes for surprise 'Abracadabra' music video

Alejandro has called Lady Gaga's name once again, as the pop star's surprise new "Abracadabra" music video heavily references the visual for the classic 2009 Fame Monster hit — and repurposes some of the singer's own vintage, archived costumes, too.

In a surprise move amid Sunday night's Grammys ceremony, Gaga dropped the full music video for the third single from her new album Mayhem, titled "Abracadabra," during a commercial break, and the dance-heavy clip enchanted fans with the same dark-pop magic she first conjured in "Alejandro" nearly 15 years ago.

Related: Lady Gaga says 'playing a persona had a price,' confronts her pain from early fame on new Joker album Harlequin

The visual begins with Mayhem — the same character who stalked Gaga in the "Disease" music video last year — dressed in a blood-red outfit, lording over Gaga and a band of dancers clad in all-white outfits. The camera introduces viewers to the resulting dance battle while zooming in over Mayhem's shoulder, recalling a similar shot at the start of the "Alejandro" video that sees Gaga sitting on a throne, presiding over a group of male soldiers dancing for her on the grounds below.

The "Abracadabra" video proceeds with a "dance battle that's led by the light and the dark sides" inside Gaga herself, the 38-year-old told Elle of the visual's story. While that narrative is tonally in line with that of "Disease" (which manifests Gaga's fears and anxieties as the grotesque Mayhem character, who stalks her throughout a picturesque picket-fence neighborhood), the story slightly differs from the one seen in "Alejandro."

Both clips follow the push and pull of overarching power, but in "Alejandro," it's a far more overt rift incorporating fascist control and homoeroticism — still, "Abracadabra" repeatedly nods to its similarities to "Alejandro," particularly in its color scheme (red, black, white), choreography (Gaga's dancers hoist her high above their heads in similar fashion in both clips), and the staging of religious conflict (among other things, right-side-up crosses twist and turn upside-down in both videos, particularly on Gaga's costumes).

Also reminiscent of the "Alejandro" video is the "Abracadabra" clip's platforming of queer community. "Alejandro" and its sensual depiction of military homoeroticism served as a comment on the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (which Gaga also spoke out against during her famous 2010 speech, "The Prime Rib of America"), "Abracadabra" centers queer artists at a time when conservative politics have manifested in alarming ways, including the White House removing access to HIV resources on CDC platforms, and Donald Trump's declarations that government agencies will only officially recognize two genders.

"I can't initiate or receive the challenge without my community and the community is so strong. And the process of learning the choreography, being with the dancers, working with [choreographer] Parris Goebel, was a beautiful experience," Gaga continued in the Elle article, with the video featuring queer ballroom artists like Honey Balenciaga. "We were a family, trying to find something really honest together. It's wild to me watching the video now, this many weeks into the year because something that we made a good few months ago about resilience is coming out now, when we need it most."

Gaga also said she felt that the video communicated "community" through costuming — which she dipped into her own personal clothing archives for.

"Something that was important to me was in a video of this size that we were also environmentally conscious to not overproduce and make too many new things," she revealed. "So actually my main white cape in the video was upcycled using old wedding dresses. And we also used deadstock fabric for the dancer’s clothes. That's fabric that's been in warehouses for long periods of time. And we also use pieces from my archive; so old costumes are reinterpreted. There were a few new pieces. But we were trying to make something that was in the spirit of love the whole way through, something that was made with a really warm heart and community in mind."

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Ahead of the release of "Disease" and "Abracadabra," Gaga previously told Entertainment Weekly that her new music would capture the essence of darkness.

"I want all the music to be a surprise, as much as I can. I know that, in some ways, you all hate that," she said during an interview for her Joker: Folie á Deux companion album Harlequin, laughing when asked if the long-awaited "Telephone" sequel featuring Beyoncé is on her new album. "The darkness has already started to make its way into this record."

Mayhem is out March 7. Watch the "Abracadabra" music video above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly