Babylon

Babylon was founded in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) in the 23rd century BC. It grew to become a major metropolis and later the center of the great Babylonian Empire, when it was arguably the largest city in the world. During this jubilant track Gaga envisions the ancient locality as a place where people had fun. We only have the weekend You can serve it to me, ancient-city style We can party like it's BC With a pretty 16th-century smile

Babylon is symbolic of evil in the Bible; the book of Genesis recounts how the citizens of the ancient city started to build a tower that would reach to Heaven. God spoiled their plan by making them unable to understand each other, creating chaos and miscommunication, and they never completed the Tower of Babel. Body's moving like a sculpture On the top of Tower of Babel tonight We are climbing up to Heaven Speaking languages in a BloodPop moonlight Throughout her career, Gaga has battled gossip about her love life, gender identity and much more. Here, she is drawing a parallel between the meaningless way people "babble on" about her and the incoherent communication between the Babylonians as they tried in vain to build the Tower of Babel. Talk it out, babble on Battle for your life, Babylon That's gossip, what you on? Speaking to Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Gaga explained that "Babylon" is "a song about gossip, something that had dominated my life that made me feel so small and chained. Now I wear chains and I wear them with pride. I feel free."

Other artists that have used the ancient city of Babylon as a metaphor for evil include David Gray, The Ruts, Sheryl Crow, and Steely Dan. And we mustn't forget the more literal "Rivers Of Babylon," based on Psalm 137 in the Bible.