On Monday Lady Gaga ‘rush-released’ her highly anticipated single Applause in what the singer described as a ‘Pop Emergency’.

Released early to prevent potential hackers and leaks of the track, the single is the first to be taken from the singers upcoming third album, ARTPOP.

Since its rush release Lady Gaga has revealed that the inspiration behind the song came from the overwhelming support she received from fans when she was forced to cancel a number of her tour dates.

Yesterday Lady Gaga announced that she would be headlining at the iTunes Festival this year, and promised fans that she will play an hours worth of new music. The first live performance of the single will be at the VMA’s on August 25th.

So, what is Applause like? As a fan of Lady Gaga I always welcome any new music from the singer and after following the way in which the single has been promoted up until now, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. I just knew that it was going to sound different; but different to most other pop music, or different to the Gaga back catalogue?

The verdict? Well it’s an odd one. The song kicks off with an electro pop beat, that reminds me vaguely of a retro GameBoy game. This by no means is a bad thing, in fact the more you hear the song, the more it begins to grow on you.

A simile that has been thrown around by many people is the David Bowie inspired singing that can be heard. While this may the case, it does actually work in the song.

Applause is a taster of what fans can expect from the singers first new release since Born This Way in 2011.

The chorus is dominated by the lyrics “I live for the applause”. Simple, but in all respects effective; and they most certainly stick in your head for a long time after the song has finished.

There’s a fair few different sounds going on in the song, and lyrics ‘Put your hands up and make them touch’ that shouldn’t work actually do.

Is it the different, groundbreaking music that myself and many other fans and critics were expecting? Possibly not, however you cannot take away the fact that Lady Gaga knows how to make a good pop song.

However it does rather get me wondering about what the rest of ARTPOP will sound like. Sadly the album isn’t available until November; but with the promise of new music at the upcoming iTunes Festival, we can only sit and wonder what Lady Gaga will throw at us next.