The Grammy-winning producer celebrates Gaga as a “titan” and “once-in-a-lifetime talent.”

Lady Gaga’s Mayhem partner-in-crime Andrew Watt honors her as one of EW’s 2025 Entertainers of the Year

The Grammy-winning producer celebrates Gaga as a "titan" and "once-in-a-lifetime talent."

December 17, 2025 11:00 a.m. ET

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Andrew Watt honors Lady Gaga for EW's Entertainers of the Year. Credit:

Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

*Just like the magic word she made part of pop culture this year, Lady Gaga cast a spell on 2025 with her February release of "Abracadabra," The song and video debuted during the Grammys, where she took home a trophy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Bruno Mars for "Die With a Smile." The track was the second single from her sixth studio album, *Mayhem, *which followed a month later. A hit with critics and Little Monsters alike — even winning over some new fans — she may not have been able to predict just how big her year would be. *

*She hosted and was musical guest on *Saturday Night Live* just after the album's release in March; a month later, Gaga was the opening-night headliner of Coachella, where she staged a five-act theatrical spectacle that eventually became her massive Mayhem Ball Tour, which officially kicked off in July in the U.S., went international in September, and will return stateside in February, wrapping up in April in New York. But before all of that, she staged the largest-ever free concert by a female artist on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, attended by some 2.5 million people.*

*And in the midst of all of that, she also won a Sports Emmy in May for outstanding music direction for singing "Hold My Hand" before this year's Super Bowl, putting her one letter away — the T — from EGOT status; and she found time to guest star on season 2 of Netflix's *Wednesday*, where she played legendary Nevermore teacher Rosaline Rotwood, opposite Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Addams.*

*In November, Gaga earned seven Grammy nominations for *Mayhem*, including Album of the Year, and Record and Song of the Year for "Abracadabra," nominations she shares with co-writer and producer Andrew Watt. Oh, and ** named "Abracadabra" the Best Song of 2025, thanks in large part to its "lethal cocktail of gothic theatricality, powerhouse vocals, club-tailored production (the lyrics 'feel the beat under your feet, the floor's on fire' couldn’t be more apt), and an impish, nonsensical chorus that only she could concoct," and *Mayhem* at No. 5 in our Best Albums of the Year.*

*Watt, a 3-time Grammy winner with 12 other nominations to his credit — including five in 2026 (four with Lady Gaga and one for Best Song Written for Visual Media for Elton John and Brandi Carlile's "Never Too Late," which also earned him an Oscar nomination earlier this year) — celebrates Gaga's accomplishments, artistry, and excellence.***

***Check out the rest of **'s 2025 Entertainers of the Year.***

Lady Gaga performs during the Mayhem Ball Tour at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 22.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

I grew up in New York City playing every bar, club, and restaurant it had to offer. In 2007, Bleecker Street became my stomping ground. I would walk up and down, west to east, guitar case in hand, playing my heart out and hoping to get discovered. One of the first people to ever take notice of me was a guy named Kenny Gorka, who owned and booked the Bitter End, where Bob Dylan got his start. He started letting me play there a few times a month, and it was through him I learned about the legend of Stefani Germanotta...

I remember the first time Kenny said to me “Hey kid, you do that Led Zeppelin song pretty good but not as good as Stefani Germanotta...she just got her record deal and she played her first shows here…that could be you if you keep it up…she used to walk down the street holding her keyboard and wait all night to get up on this stage. Now she goes by Lady Gaga...” 18 years ago was the first time I heard that name…

Lady Gaga was not yet the known titan in music, art, fashion, film, and philanthropy that she is today, but for me – without ever hearing a song – she represented a way out...a way into the big leagues...she represented BELIEF, HOPE, AND PROMISE…if she could do it playing the same cover songs as I was playing, hustling through the same clubs, then fuck it, so could I…she became a life force for me. When she started having the monster hits a few months later, I remember being so proud to be able to say she got her start at the Bitter End!!! The dream became even more tangible. She was from my neighborhood and she was beginning to light the world on fire…she would go on to change the landscape of pop music forever with her debut album *The Fame*/*The Fame Monster*...and she is continuing to do so, 17 years later, with *Mayhem*.

The first time I met Lady Gaga was when I was producing an album for the Rolling Stones a few years ago. Stevie Wonder had come into the studio that day to record the song “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” live with the band. After our first take, the fellas and I wandered back into the control room to hear where we were at, and right as playback began, the door swung open and it was Lady Gaga popping in to say hello…she had been working on her music for *Joker: Folie à Deux* down the hall…

She stayed to listen to our second take, and by the third take, Mick Jagger invited her into the live room…she was sitting on the floor, her back to the cabinet of Stevie’s Rhodes Electric Piano, humming along to a song she had only heard twice in the 20 minutes she had been in the room with us. So naturally, I put my bass guitar down to grab her a microphone just in time for take three to begin. Mick handed her the lyrics, and the rest is history. There was no hesitation from her end. She followed Mick by watching his mouth and found her part with nothing but primal instinct…the roof blew off the studio that day…talk about capturing lightning in a bottle…this was a full-blown tsunami…This was the first time I got to witness the fearless force of Lady Gaga...

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This experience with the Stones led to our work together on what would become the album *Mayhem*…which I feel beyond blessed to have been able to co-write and co-produce with her. There was not a day of creation with her that I took for granted. The full circle moment of where we both started and how fate brought us together to create was never out of my consciousness…How lucky I was to be in the room with her. We had all of the same references of music we loved and grew up on, so we developed an encyclopedic-like shorthand of musical elements and moods we could pull from at any moment. This happened very quickly, and we formed one of the most incredible musical bonds of my life.

Lady Gaga is an incredible collaborator. The most important skill to being a musician is how you listen and react to what is happening around you. This is as true in jazz as it is in writing pop songs. I will never forget when Cirkut and I played her the beginning track of what would become “Abracadabra.” Within the first minute, she was on the microphone, eyes closed, freestyling melodies. Once we had something that felt like a song, we entered phase two of her songwriting process…hitting the piano.

Lady Gaga performs during the Mayhem Ball Tour in Los Angeles on July 28.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

We sat head-to-head for every song on *Mayhem* with nothing but a guitar and a piano. Even if the song was a dance track, like “Abracadabra,” it had to be able to be played down, bare bones, before she could truly find its soul and figure out what she was trying to say. Watching her do this again and again showed me how important it was to her process. This is how she made her pop music have emotion…a calling…a reason she was singing the words she was singing.

When she would step up to the microphone to record her lead vocals, I was often brought to tears. I have never witnessed a human being just straight up going for it in that way before. All inhibitions had left her body, and the person I had just been talking to, checking lyrics with, was gone. She reached so deeply into the depths of her soul every time she hit that microphone. This is the difference between singing and storytelling. Lady Gaga is one of the great storytellers of our time. She is as much Carole King as she is David Bowie. Lady Gaga is not a singer…she is a force of nature. She is a virtuosic musician and producer. She knows every note, chord, synth, drum fill, and arpeggio that has ever made its way into any of her songs. If there is a part added to one of her songs, there is a specific reason for it, and she has thought deeply about it while questioning it with everything she has. She is incredibly hard on herself in her process of creating art, but that is what makes her the only artist of her generation on her level. A once-in-a-lifetime talent.

There wasn’t a day that went by in the album process that she wasn’t thinking about how to bring this music to her fans in the most grandiose of ways. The monsters are her North Star and they were with her at every waking moment of *Mayhem.*

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The difference between Lady Gaga and everyone else is that she doesn’t just build a world for her music to exist in…she changes the world. What she has done this year alone — taking the Mayhem Ball to Coachella, Brazil, and arenas and stadiums around the world — is truly groundbreaking to say the least. 2.5 million people in one audience…I mean F— OFF…

The visualization of this album is incendiary. Going to see the Mayhem Ball is as important as it must have been to see *The Phantom of the Opera* when it first hit Broadway. She has combined pop rock and electronic music with theater. There is no other concert like it on earth. When she chooses to give you her art, she commits and then doubles down…then she doubles down again.

Yes, her music makes you want to sing and dance, but more than that…it’s important. It represents freedom, desire, and being authentically YOU. Lady Gaga is a trailblazer for innovation of the soul. She is a mirror…but don’t look too long or you might find yourself on Bleecker Street playing Led Zeppelin songs.

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