Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ is easily one of the greatest pop songs of the 21st century, and has been a global smash hit for over 16 years since its initial release in 2008.
The song is so famous it barely needs an introduction- in fact, it’s probably already playing in your head right now. But a recent revelation about the song’s lyrics has made people realize it’s actually much dirtier than meets the eye.
Let’s think about the song for a moment: In the section right after the chorus, Gaga sings “P-p-p-poker face, P-p-p-poker face,” right?
At the very least, that’s how we’ve always sung it.
Lady Gaga defend Mulvaney. Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty
But let’s listen a little closer. Gaga does indeed say ‘poker face’ the first time around, but every time she repeats it, she actually drops the f-bomb and sings the much dirtier “f-f-f*** her face.”
Listen very carefully below:
Don’t believe us? Go and listen again. The raunchy lyrics have always been there, hiding in plain sight, and have never been more than a quick Google search away.
Lyrics website Genius has had the correct lyrics on its site for over nine years, but the song’s simple sing-along chorus has been so ingrained in our collective memory for so long that nobody ever thought to take a look.
According to Lady Gaga, KIIS FM was the only radio station to correctly censor her song “Poker Face,” in which she inconspicuously sings “fuck her face” every other time after the chorus
— UberFacts (@UberFacts) January 5, 2021
What’s even more shocking is that all this time, Gaga herself has never denied the song’s secret dirty meaning- she reportedly always sings the uncensored lyrics when performing the song live and even alluded to it in an interview all the way back in 2009.
During a gig at iHeartRadio’s Wango Tango – an annual concert hosted by radio station KIIS FM- she admitted the station was the only one to actually censor the song correctly.
“KIIS FM is the smartest radio station in the whole world and I’ll tell you why,” she told an interviewer back in 09, Because this song, it got played all over the world on tens of thousands of radio stations, but KIIS FM was the only one that said I had to censor my lyric because they thought I might be saying something bad.
“And out of all the radio stations in the world that played this record over and over, KIIS FM was the only one that was right and caught on.”
On social media, the revelation has taken people by surprise, with one Twitter user writing: “I WAS TODAY YEARS OLD WHEN I FOUND OUT ‘POKER FACE”s LYRICS TURNS INTO ‘f*** her face'”.
A second added: “just realized that in the poker face lyrics it says ‘po-po-po-poker face fu-fu-f*** her face'”.
Wait one fucking minute. Lady Gaga says “FUCK HER FACE” in the chorus??? She’s not just repeating “Poker face” again?! And it’s been like that whole time?! And I didn’t know?! Am I alone?! Is this all on me?! Does ANYONE know?! Does SHE know?! “Fuck her face???!!!!” pic.twitter.com/bMeMlmE9uH
— DJ (@DJNOSTYLE) February 28, 2024
@947 this morning @ 07:43 you played lady Gaga Poker Face. With out removing the profanity…in case you missed it the lyrics are as follows
P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)
P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)— Garren Pillay (Papa-G) (@GarrenMP) March 6, 2024
But despite Gaga’s cryptic clues, it took until 2021 for the rest of the world to catch up, when a viral TikTok pointing out the lyrics took the world by storm.
Since it was first posted the video has racked up millions of views, and ensured none of us will ever hear this classic the same way again.
