It wouldn’t be an Ava Max release without a pre-release leak. On Tuesday, fans of Max circulated an unreleased snippet from her album Don’t Click Play‘s title track, in which she directly addresses the hate and comparisons to Lady Gaga that she’s faced throughout her career. A source confirmed to Rolling Stone that the snippet is real.
“She samples, singing Gaga imitations. Can’t kings and queens look good with poker faces?” she sings on the track, referencing her own hit “Kings and Queens,” and the Gaga favorite. “But I’m loving myself even if you hate it.”
Max has addressed the comparisons to Gaga in the past, especially related to their appearance. In 2023, she told Nylon, “No matter how many haters there are out there, or people who want to bring you down — or people who think I’m a Lady Gaga comparison, which is huuuh-larious.”
She added at the time: “Who doesn’t love Gaga?! I can’t help that I look like this. I was born the way I was born too! I can’t help that I’m 5-foot-2 as well. Like what do they want me to do, dye my hair black?! I did that, and then they started comparing me to Dua! You can’t win.”
Both Max’s debut LP, Heaven & Hell, and her sophomore album, Diamonds and Dancefloors, were pushed back for release because of leaks, and Max has addressed her music’s proneness to making its way online before release in the past. “I have a lot of demos I’ve written that are not finalized records, and I’d appreciate it if you stop leaking these records like this one,” she asked fans in January.
The “Don’t Click Play” leak comes just days before she’s set to release her album of the same name after she’s been absent from social media for weeks. Last week, the same source who confirmed the “Don’t Click Play” leak told Rolling Stone that “Ava’s third studio album is in fact still set to be released on August 22nd,” despite her absence.
Rolling Stone also acquired the track list and credits for her 12-track project. The LP features songs titled “How Can I Dance,” “Take My Call,” “Skin in the Game,” and “World’s Smallest Violin.” Most of the project was produced by Pink Slip and Inverness.
Max released a trio of singles — February’s “Lost Your Faith,” May’s “Lovin Myself,” and July’s “Wet, Hot American Dream” — for the album earlier this year. When she dropped “Lovin Myself,” she told Rolling Stone that the “song came from a moment where I finally realized I didn’t need anyone else’s validation to feel whole.”
She added at the time: “I’ve been through a lot of phases in my career, highs, lows, public scrutiny, private growth, and through all of that, I started to understand that the most important relationship I’ll ever have is the one I have with myself.”
