"Aura" (originally titled "Burqa") is a song written by Lady Gaga in 2012 for ARTPOP. The song was registered on Gaga's BMI on November 5th, 2013.
Background and Composition
The song was originally composed under the working title of "Burqa", but the name was changed during the process of making the song. When the demo leaked, from which Emma, a moderator at GagaDaily, whom Gaga's wheelchair was named after, stated that she had been given permission to reveal the title of the track and its producers.
On October 29th, 2012, Lady Gaga sent a message to Zedd on Twitter saying: "been listening to **rq* all day". Some fans believed this to be "Burqa", the working title of a confirmed track on ARTPOP. The name was also mentioned during Monstervision No.8 when Gaga asked Terry Richardson: "Are you singing Burqa?" during the clip. This speculation of furthered when Joe Germanotta told fans that "Burqa" was the best song on ARTPOP.
During the recording of the album, "Aura" was the the planned lead single for a long time. However, it was changed for “Applause.” Lady Gaga disagreed with Interscope Records’ decision and took matters into her own hands by making a fake account on Gaga Daily under the username @BorisIsHere. Gaga Daily's moderators confirmed that this account was created by her. Lady Gaga shared herself a demo of the song, running for roughly four minutes, on SoundCloud and shared the link to it on Gaga Daily on August 5th, 2013, and then the account was blocked on her own fan site. And soon that demo began being played on several radio stations in Australia and South Africa. After Lady Gaga admitted to it in artRAVE meet and greet that she leaked this song because Interscope was making her upset and she wanted fans to hear her new music. Also she said she wanted Aura to be the first single, so she made that account on Gaga Daily.
On August 20th, 2021 during a Q&A on Gaga Daily's Instagram account details about the leak of "Aura" were revealed.
The final version of the song has Gaga singing in a lower voice instead of screaming the lyrics. Gaga explained during a Twitter Q&A that "These vocals were done at a special time during conception of the record. They were important to me and @Zedd. This is our vision".
Gaga explained the meaning of the song in the track-by-track ARTPOP commentary on Sirius XM:
| “ | "Aura" is, the first experience that you have on the [ ARTPOP ] app. (...) So, I guess I wrote this song, as a way to sort of accompany, that initial experience. (...) So, this is really a song that is about a lot of different things, but what it is really, is that people have a certain perception of me, because I wear a lot of very visual fashion, and I’m a very creative person. So, this song is about me basically saying, that just because all of those things are there that doesn’t mean there’s not, sort of the same person underneath; and then also that, these veils are just protecting me from the thing that I hold most sacred: which is my creativity. And so it’s really, my aura, is the way that I deal with my insanity — and I feel quite insane — so, the song sounds quite insane. It’s a complextual record that I did with DJ Zedd and Infected Mushroom, and there’s sort of this Israeli guitar, that’s looping in and out of this, really complex beat; and you know, I’m kind of a complex personality, very intense personality. So, this song is both of those things. One of the lyrics is, [lyrics from "Aura"] “Enigma pop star is fun, she wear burqa for fashion / It’s not a statement as much as just a move of passion,” you know, everyone thinks everything I do is a statement, but sometimes I’m just moved by something passionate and I want to express it. | ” |
—Lady Gaga on Sirius XM | ||
On June 2017, the original old version of the song with alternative lyrics, "Burqa" surfaced online.
On April 30th, 2021 during "no skips” ARTPOP party at the Scarlet Bar in Chicago DJ White Shadow revealed that this song was supposed to be the first single off of ARTPOP.
Performances
| Dates | Location | City | 
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| 2013 | |||
| September 1 | iTunes Festival | London | 
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| September 7 | Le Poisson Rouge | New York City | 
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| November 10 | artRave | Brooklyn | |
| 2014 | |||
| March 13 | South by Southwest (SXSW) | Austin, TX |
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Lyrics
I killed my former and
Left her in the trunk on highway 10
Put the knife under the hood
If you find it, send it straight to Hollywood
Haaaaaahahahahaha hahahaha hahahaha hahahaha
Haaaaaahahahahaha hahahaha hahahaha hahahaha
Haaaaaahahahahaha hahahaha hahahaha hahahaha
Ahhhhh ah ahhh ahhh ah ah ah ah ah
Aura-ah-ah
Aura-ah-ah
Aura-ah-ah
Aura-ah-ah
Aura-ah-ah
Aura-ah-ah
I'm not a wandering slave, I am a woman of choice
My veil is protection for the gorgeousness of my face
You want to pity me cuz was arranged one man to love
But in the bedroom, the size of him's more than enough
Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura
Behind the aura?
Do you wanna touch me cosmic, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura
Behind the aura, behind the aura, behind the aura?
Oh
Enigma pop star is fun, she wear burqa for fashion
It's not a statement as much as just a move of passion
I may not walk on your street or shoot a gun on your soil
I hear you screaming, is it because of pleasure or toil?
Dance
Sex
Art
Pop
Tech
Dance
Sex
Art
Pop
Tech
Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura
Behind the aura?
Do you wanna touch me cosmic, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura
Behind the aura, behind the curtain, behind the burqa?
Oh
ARTPOP
I killed my boyfriend and
Left him in the trunk on highway 10
Put the knife under the hood.
If you find it, send it straight to Hollywood
Hahahaha hahahaha hahahaha
Burqa-a-a-a Burqa-a-a-a
Burqa-a-a-a Burqa-a-a-a
Burqa-a-a-a Burqa-a-a-a
I'm not a wandering slave, I am a woman of choice
My veil is protection for the gorgeousness of my face
You ought to pity me cause there's always one man to love
But in the bedroom the size of him's more than enough
Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the burqa, behind the burqa?
Do you wanna touch me, cosmic lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the burqa
Behind the burqa, behind the burqa, behind the burqa?
Enigma popstar is fun, she wear burqa for fashion
It's not a statement as much as just a move of passion
I may not walk on your street or shoot a gun on your soil
I hear you screaming, is it because of pleasure or toil?
Dance, sex, ART, POP, tech
Dance, sex, ART, POP, tech
Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the burqa, behind the burqa?
Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the burqa, behind the burqa, behind the burqa, behind the burqa, behind the burqa, behind the burqa, behind the burqa?
Burqa-aaa, Burqa-aaa, Burqa-aaa
Lyric Video
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Part of the song was featured in the third official trailer for Machete Kills, which was released to United States theaters on October 11, 2013. It was later confirmed by MTV and E! that a lyric video for the song would be released on October 8, 2013. The lyric video's release was pushed back to later in the week, as confirmed by Gaga and VEVO both on their Twitter accounts, and is scheduled to be released later this week. When asked if the release of the video meant that "Aura" was the second single from the album, Gaga confirmed via Twitter that it is not the second single.
Credits
| Writers and producers | Lady Gaga, Zedd and Infected Mushroom |
| Recording by | Dave Russell at Record Plant, Hollywood, CA
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| Assistant recording | Benjamin 'Ben' Rice at Record Plant |
| Mixed by | Zedd at Zedd1, Santa Monica, CA
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| Assistant mixers | Ryan Shanahan and Jesse Taub |
| Mastering | Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering, Burbank, CA
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| Excutive Producer and A&R | Vincent Herbert for Streamline Records |
| Management | Troy Carter for Atom Factory |
| Published by |
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References
- BMI | Repertoire
- https://twitter.com/ladygaga/status/263043243992834048
- ARTPOP Track-By-Track Commentary by Lady Gaga on Sirius XM
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