Lady Gaga Shares Emotional Message About Album 'ARTPOP,' Thanks Fans For Petition

If you were wondering why Lady Gaga’s 2013 album “ARTPOP” was suddenly back in the Top 10 on iTunes, you can thank her Little Monsters.

A Change.org petition launched by Gaga’s fans earlier this month― with more than 40,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning ― is demanding that Interscope Records release the B-sides of the album, aka “Act II.”

“During the late first quarter of 2021, [DJ White Shadow] —a main producer of the fourth studio album—responded to a fan asking if we’ll ever be able to hear the infamous ACT II. DJWS responded with, ‘Gotta petition Gaga on that one’. So, we did,” reads the petition, adding that it was important to “show the Haus of Gaga that we still care about the experimental album and that chart success does not matter.”

DJ White Shadow has played snippets of the mysterious “Act II” for Gaga’s audiences in the past, including a song called “Tea” during Gaga’s Joanne World Tour in 2017.

The petition sent “ARTPOP” — which received mixed reviews from critics when it was first released — to No. 1 on the iTunes Pop Album Chart and No. 4 overall as of late Monday.

In response, Gaga tweeted an emotional note to fans and said the petition had “inspired such a tremendous warmth in my heart.”

“Making this album was like heart surgery, I was desperate, in pain, and poured my heart into electronic music that slammed harder than any drug I could find,” she wrote. “I fell apart after I released this album. Thank you for celebrating something that once felt like destruction. We always believed it was ahead of its time. Years later turns out, sometimes, artists know. And so do little monsters. Paws up.”

The petition to #buyARTPOPoniTunes for a volume II has inspired such a tremendous warmth in my heart. Making this album was like heart surgery, I was desperate, in pain, and poured my heart into electronic music that slammed harder than any drug I could find.

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 13, 2021

I fell apart after I released this album. Thank you for celebrating something that once felt like destruction. We always believed it was ahead of its time. Years later turns out, sometimes, artists know. And so do little monsters. Paws up 🙌❤️❤️❤️

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 13, 2021

Billboard said “ARTPOP” was “imperfect” when it was released, while Time went with “normal and boring” and The New York Times called it “pumping so insistently it sometimes forgets to breathe.” Its biggest hit and lead single was the song “Applause,” which has since gone multiplatinum.

The album’s biggest misstep was arguably the inclusion of R. Kelly on “Do What U Want.” Gaga has since apologized for collaborating with the alleged sexual abuser.

“I’m sorry, both for my poor judgement when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner,” she tweeted in 2019.

Gaga has scrubbed the track from all streaming platforms and has had it removed from future copies of “ARTPOP.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.