But the comedown, if you can call it that, was fascinating in its own way. Since Cheek to Cheek, 2014’s duet album with Tony Bennett, we’ve witnessed a gradual unraveling of Gaga’s once messianic image. She was superwoman no longer, and 2016’s Joanne allowed her to be more vulnerable, to find a sense of equilibrium in her art.

Lady Gaga has influenced several generations of weird, countercultural, often LGBTQ+ pop stars — everyone from Lorde to Sia, Nicki Minaj, Charli XCX, Halsey, Troye Sivan, SOPHIE, Janelle Monáe, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, and Dua Lipa owes Gaga some debt. Ironically, the sound of Gaga’s iconic dance-pop hits fell completely out of fashion alongside the moody, trap-tinged, playlist-centric downturn of late-2010s pop. But seemingly through sheer force of will, 2020’s Chromatica channeled four decades of house-music history to reclaim Gaga’s dance-pop throne for the first time since 2013.

Since then, she has stayed busy — releasing the future-house Dawn of Chromatica remix album, leading the charge on Love for Sale (Tony Bennett’s final record and set of live performances after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis), and holding both pop and jazz-piano residencies in Las Vegas.

It’s true that sometimes the dazzling, attention-seizing provocateur who gave us the VMAs meat dress and vomit art feels like a distant memory. Then she’ll go and do something like almost single-handedly carrying the quarantine-era 2020 VMAs or stealing the show in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, and you’ll remember — she’s still Lady Fucking Gaga.

Over the years, Gaga’s shape-shifting has painted a collective portrait of a complex, restless, fearless woman. In every guise, she’s given it her all. No artist is completely original, but time has proven Lady Gaga sui generis. There’s no question that she’s an all-timer. What will she do next? Your guess is as good as hers.

This list is less about judging Lady Gaga’s catalogue than making sense of the recent past — much of which we’ve already forgotten! It includes every commercially released studio track and her more significant featured credits. That gives us 136 songs, with fewer stinkers than you’d expect, and a top 70 that could rival any pop star’s catalogue. No list can represent every fan’s opinion, but I’ve tried my best to rank her songs (along with her more impactful videos) based on their emotional, autobiographical, and cultural significance. Disagree? To quote the Lady herself: “I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong / To crash the critic saying, ‘Is it right or is it wrong?’”