Lady Gaga dropped the video for her heart-swelling Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack ballad “Hold My Hand” on Friday (May 6), which finds the pop singer embodying the anticipated sequel’s adrenalized vibe. The visual directed by the film’s director, Joseph Kosinski, mixes footage from the high-octane fighter pilot drama starring Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Monica Barbaro and Jon Hamm with black-and-white footage of Gaga posing next to military jets while dressed in a flight jacket.
The singer also bangs out the soaring power ballad’s emotional chorus — “So cry tonight/ But don’t you let go of my hand/ You can cry every last tear/ I won’t leave ’til I understand/ Promise me, just hold my hand” — while playing a grand piano on a windswept tarmac and wearing dog tags, a white tank top and aviator shades.
The song, which is featured throughout the film, was produced by Gaga and BloodPop, with additional production by Benjamin Rice. The motion-picture version features additional production by Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer. “Hold My Hand” is a “love letter to the world during and after a very hard time,” Gaga said in an earlier statement. “I’ve wanted you to hear it for so long.”
“Hold My Hand” is Gaga’s return to writing and producing original music for film following 2018’s A Star Is Born, the soundtrack that earned an Academy Award, four Grammys, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and Critics’ Choice Award. The dramatic track is a spiritual successor to Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” from the original 1986 fighter-pilot drama, with Gaga’s new video folding in some of the classic scenes from the first Top Gun.
After a series of pandemic-related delays, Top Gun: Maverick is slated to hit theaters nationwide on May 27 via Paramount Pictures.
Watch “Hold My Hand” below.