“Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande

As Lady Gaga noted when describing this song, its meaning is multi-layered. And effectively deciphering it lies in understanding the artists’ metaphor of “rain”.

According to Gaga and Ariana, in the lyrics, “rain” represents two things. One is tears. So when the ladies state “rain on me”, said expression fundamentally points to the notion of them letting out their pent-up frustration and emotional pain by crying. Or in looking at the way they present this scenario on a deeper level, life inherently has its depressions and disappointments. And whereas they would “rather be” in a state where they did not have to deal with such, at least crying lets them know that the are “alive”. That is to say that they have not let their considerable depressions wax their hearts and spirits cold.

And along those same lines, “rain” is also symbolic of drinking alcohol. In other words, just as the ladies cry in order to alleviate emotional discomfort, likewise they may consume some wine for instance as an alternative anti-depressant.

So while this song is deceptively-deep in its wording, ultimately its thesis is pretty-simple to understand. Ariana and Gaga acknowledge that sometimes they deal with considerable emotional pain. However, they are obviously not the types to keep such feelings bottled up and to let it eat away at their life force – or rather let’s say destroy the happiness that makes them feel alive. Rather they have both an internal and external remedy for dealing with such situations. Internally, they can try to let it all out by having a good cry. And externally, they can resort to alcohol consumption as a means to lift themselves up.

Facts about “Rain On Me”

This track was produced by the trio of BloodPop, Tchami and Burns.

The three of them also contributed to the writing of “Rain on Me”. They did so in conjunction with Boys Noize, Nija, Rami, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.

Interscope Records published this track on May 22, 2020. It is the second single from Lady Gaga’s album which is slated to be released a week later, entitled “Chromatica”. The first single from said album was “Stupid Love“.

Both Lady Gaga and Ariana got quite-wordy when describing the history behind “Rain on Me”. And outside of them explaining, as mentioned above, that the titular “rain” is symbolic of tears and alcohol, for the most part their interviews focused on how they actually became friends in the process of making this song. Moreover Ari-Chan let it be known that Gaga was in fact in control of the entire creative process behind the tune, even to the point of influencing what Ariana wore on the music video. Indeed Grande has stated in relation to filming the video that she “never dressed like this in my life”.

Chart Success

“Rain on Me” achieved immense success chart-wise, peaking at number 1 in almost about a dozen countries.

It also reached the top 10 of charts in countries ranging from Austria to Germany.