"Joker: Folie à Deux" Soundtrack Lyrics

"Joker: Folie à Deux (Music From the Motion Picture / Score from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" – Album Guide to Tracks and Key Scenes

Overview

Can a prison romance be sung without softening it? This chapter answers with a jukebox-musical spine wrapped around Hildur Guðnadóttir’s low-cello gravity. Two official releases frame it: the Music From the Motion Picture album (covers and character-led performances by Joaquin Phoenix & Lady Gaga, plus guest turns) and the companion Score album (19 cues; compact, pressure-heavy). The compilation leans on American standards and hymns as ironic mirrors; the score supplies the arterial throb that won’t go away.

The film’s set pieces are staged as numbers inside Arkham and beyond—rallies, hearings, and fantasy ruptures—so the soundtrack functions like a second script. Songs you already know (“Get Happy,” “For Once in My Life,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love”) are re-contextualized as therapy, confession, or weapon. According to label materials and trade summaries, Phoenix and Gaga perform most vocals themselves; a handful of guest features (including Nick Cave’s medley) widen the palette.

Questions & Answers

How many albums are there?

Two. A various-artists-style Music From the Motion Picture (performed chiefly by Phoenix & Gaga) and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s standalone Score.

Release dates?

Score: September 27, 2024. Compilation: October 4, 2024 (day-and-date with the U.S. theatrical release).

Who composed the score?

Hildur Guðnadóttir returned; the score album runs 19 tracks (~33–34 minutes).

Is it really a jukebox musical?

Yes. Roughly 15 well-known songs are reinterpreted in-world; one original (“Folie à Deux”) is written/performed by Lady Gaga.

What’s Gaga’s Harlequin?

A companion record released a week earlier—cover set + new material aligned to her character; some overlaps with the film album.

Any guests besides the leads?

Nick Cave performs the opening medley; other period standards appear in-character via Phoenix/Gaga.

Notes & Trivia

• The compilation is credited to Joaquin Phoenix & Lady Gaga; labels: WaterTower Music and Interscope.
• The score album’s rollout began with the single “There Is No Joker.”
• Nick Cave opens the film/album with a stitched medley (“Slap That Bass” / “Get Happy” / “What the World Needs Now Is Love”).
• “Folie à Deux” is the film’s sole new original song (written/performed by Gaga) amid mostly covers.
• Harlequin (Gaga’s companion album) arrived a week before the film—some cuts bleed into marketing and on-screen moments.

Genres & Themes

Standards & showtunes → public mask music. Optimistic lyrics become confessionals or alibis when sung inside Arkham.

Gospel/folk hymns → community-as-chant; when patients sing together, the meaning flips from faith to group delusion.

Dark chamber score → Hildur’s cellos and sub pulses reassert gravity whenever fantasy overheats—the undertow that says “this is not safe.”

Tracks & Scenes

"Slap That Bass / Get Happy / What the World Needs Now Is Love" — Nick Cave (medley)
Where it plays: Prologue montage and Arkham curtain-lift. The camera tracks a makeshift stage as Arthur fashions a smile; Cave’s baritone stitches optimism into something off-kilter. Diegetic-bleed that turns non-diegetic as the tableau widens. {opening sequence}.
Why it matters: Establishes the film’s rule: familiar songs weaponized by context.

"For Once in My Life" — Joaquin Phoenix
Where it plays: A hallway serenade pitched as apology-performance; orderlies watch, unmoved. Diegetic performance. {early Arkham beat}.
Why it matters: The lyric reads as entitlement when sung to an audience that can’t consent.

"If My Friends Could See Me Now" — Lady Gaga & Joaquin Phoenix
Where it plays: Shared delusion sequence: a drab rec room becomes a spotlight bloom as Lee and Arthur two-step past staring patients. Diegetic performance→fantasy swell. {early-mid}.
Why it matters: Self-mythologizing in duet form; the room says no, the cut says yes.

"That’s Entertainment!" — Lady Gaga
Where it plays: Courtroom daydream—fluorescents turn footlights; jurors freeze as Lee sells the punchline. Non-diegetic fantasy number with diegetic flashes. {trial montage}.
Why it matters: Showbiz language pasted over harm; the chorus becomes a dare.

"When the Saints Go Marching In" — company
Where it plays: Ward singalong led by a staff trio; clap-along turns feverish as Arthur re-writes the tempo. Diegetic. {Arkham group session}.
Why it matters: Communal ritual → mob logic in 16 bars.

"We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" — duet
Where it plays: A mirror-duet at lights-out; reflections multiply as the lyric names Arthur’s divided self. Diegetic, hushed. {mid}.
Why it matters: The film’s thesis, not shouted but breathed.

"That’s Life" — fragment reprise
Where it plays: Pre-appearance warmups and corridor walks; a callback to the first film reframed as habit. Source-adjacent. {scattered}.
Why it matters: Memory as muscle memory.

"Bewitched" — Joaquin Phoenix & Lady Gaga
Where it plays: Rooftop pas de deux in a rain haze; chromatic harmonies tilt from sweet to sour. Non-diegetic fantasy bleed. {late-mid}.
Why it matters: Seduction scored as spell—because they want it to be one.

"Folie à Deux" — Lady Gaga (original)
Where it plays: The waltz that stops the room—Lee claims the story, then pulls Arthur into her rhythm. Diegetic → full-orchestra fantasy. {late}.
Why it matters: Only original; authorship matters because she’s writing the rules now.

"The Joker" — (stage number; film version tied to Gaga’s companion cycle)
Where it plays: Cabaret staging with crimson wash; lyric turns the title into a diagnosis. Diegetic performance. {late}.
Why it matters: Owning the name—branding as fate.

"Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" — company
Where it plays: Chapel/assembly beat that curdles into chant; security shifts in the background. Diegetic. {late}.
Why it matters: Consolation hymn used as glue for a crowd that shouldn’t be glued.

"True Love Will Find You in the End" — Joaquin Phoenix (end cover)
Where it plays: Epilogue walk; outside sound drops, voice and room tone remain. Non-diegetic into credits. {ending}.
Why it matters: A fragile thesis sung by a man the city fears.

Score signposts — Hildur Guðnadóttir
“It’s Showtime” (title cadence), “Trial of the Century” (legal circus), “The Other Half” (duet fracture), “There Is No Joker” (identity denial). Non-diegetic anchors that pull fantasy back to the floor.

Music–Story Links

Every needle-drop is a mask test: do words like “happy,” “saints,” “entertainment” describe reality or aspiration? When Arthur and Lee agree on a lyric, the world briefly obeys—rooms bloom, walls dissolve, time stretches. Hildur’s cues end the dream: sub-bass returns, corridors resume, consequences knock. The push-pull—crowd song vs. private tone—maps their slide from duet into echo chamber.

How It Was Made

Hildur composed new score cues (recorded 2023–24) while the filmmaking team cleared ~15 catalog songs and staged numbers in practical spaces. The score’s first single (“There Is No Joker”) and the trailer’s standards telegraphed the approach: familiar tunes reinterpreted by the leads, with a compact score binding scenes between musical ruptures. Label rollouts coordinated the Score, the film album, and Gaga’s companion Harlequin.

Reception & Quotes

Coverage praised the “songs-turned-confessions” tactic and kept returning to Hildur’s undertow. Opinions split on tone, but even mixed reviews cited the numbers’ audacity.

“Mostly a jukebox musical… 15 very well-known songs.” trade summaries

“An eerie, booming score… lurking in the shadows of every romantic tune.” IGN review pull

“Electric when Phoenix and Gaga sing, dance, romance.” festival reviews

Additional Info

• Score album: 19 tracks; ~33–34 minutes; WaterTower Music.
• Music From album: ~41 minutes; WaterTower Music & Interscope.
• Gaga’s Harlequin: 13 tracks; companion release (covers + new cues).
• Endgame: a quietly-sung indie classic replaces the expected showstopper.
• Home release landed in Q4 2024; streaming followed shortly after.

Technical Info

• Title: Joker: Folie à Deux — Music From the Motion Picture / Score from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Year: 2024
• Type: Jukebox-musical soundtrack (covers + one original) + original score
• Primary performers (album): Joaquin Phoenix; Lady Gaga; guest Nick Cave (medley)
• Composer (score): Hildur Guðnadóttir
• Labels: WaterTower Music; Interscope Records (compilation)
• Notable placements: “Get Happy,” “For Once in My Life,” “That’s Entertainment!,” “When the Saints…,” “We Three,” “Folie à Deux” (original), end cover “True Love Will Find You in the End”
• Release context: Venice premiere Sep 4, 2024; U.S. release Oct 4, 2024

Canonical Entities & Relations

Sources: WaterTower/label listings; Wikipedia overviews (film, soundtrack, score); track-use guides (TheWrap, Collider, /Film, Polygon); IMDb soundtrack page; festival/trailer coverage.

November, 12th 2025