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Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande marked the unofficial start of summer this week by releasing their shimmery, much-anticipated duet, Rain on Me. 

But fans may be surprised to learn their union wasn’t exactly an organic one – at least not at first. 

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe released on Friday, Gaga said she was initially “too ashamed to hang out” with Ariana, despite the fact that the two women “connected right away” once they did get together.

“She was so persistent,” Gaga said. “She would try over and over again to be friends with me. … And eventually, she called me on my shit. She was [like], ‘You’re hiding.’ And I was, ‘I am hiding. I’m totally hiding.’”

The Born This Way singer didn’t clarify why she was so reluctant to forge a friendship with Ariana at first. Later in the interview, however, she opened up about her “masochistic tendencies,” implying that she was concerned about being a bad influence on the younger star. 

Fortunately for the world, the two soon forged a kinship ― and it wound up being a “beautiful, very healing process” for Gaga.

“It was just so awesome to watch her,” she said. “That woman has been through some really tough, really hard life-testing stuff, undoubtedly.”

Rain on Me will appear on Gaga’s sixth studio album, Chromatica, due out next week. The album’s promotional cycle got off to a solid start with its anthemic first single, Stupid Love, in February. 

Like many artists, however, Gaga opted to postpone the album’s release as concerns over the spread of the coronavirus grew. In spite of the delay, she stayed busy by co-organising Global Citizen’s One World: Together at Home concert, featuring appearances by Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lopez, among others. 

 “It’s been a very difficult time for a lot of people,” Gaga said in the interview. “I wanted to do something to help the world that was very focused.” She called Chromatica a “beautiful abstraction of my perception of the world.”

“I just wanted to wait for a second and do something specific. And then when it felt appropriate, I was like, ‘OK, we can get abstract,’” she said.

Watch the video for Rain on Me below…