Yes. This could be a blessing in disguise. Born This Way may have slayed but when it fell off it fell off HARD. Applause beginning with a small debut will ensure better longevity.

Bad Romance debuted with 142,000 copies sold in it's first week and went on to sell over 5 million digital downloads in the US. This is probably what's best for Gaga.

Bad Romance didn't even open to 200k its first week.
It was a crawler.
I think Applause will be a crawler. Will it go #1 ? Meh...
I think it will be a solid success, not as big as some of her past singles, but a solid success. Looks like it's doing good WW. Contrary to popular belief, Lady Gaga has never been a huge opener. The only reason Born This Way did crazy numbers, was because that song was so massively hyped.
Applause doesn't even have 1/4 of the hype BTW had.

Rise Applause rise this is the beginning.

No offense but I feel like this song is just one of those songs that the general public will not use. Look at Run The World, it had an incredible performance at the BBMAs and a fantastic video that had a lot of hits on VEVO, but neither helped because the masses didn't like the song on its own. I could be wrong but I just feel like the general public doesn't want Applause.

Don't think so, the gp is not liking it.

Ummmm k....WHO else? Literally.

No.

It's only its first week + Her team is thirsty for #1's + gimmick etc = maybe.

No.
It's a really bad song!!!
Nothing can save it!

I just feel Roar is much more relatable that Applause. I think more people identify with "hear me roar" than "i live for the applause". This is coming from a Gaga stan lol

She still wasn't a force back then, and I'm pretty sure LG and Paparazzi were still going strong. It was BR + what followed which made her so huge.

I think y'all are a bit deluding yourself with those BR comparisons. I mean, anything could happen and the song is far from done and can have good longevity but a BR scenario is pretty unlikely.

Absolutely agree. Roar is more accessible.

Applause was a mistake! That is all, she better take this top 10 as a warning and move on. Two years of anticipation should not result in such an underwhelming lead single.

RTW opened with like 75K tho.

Unfortunately for Run The World, streaming wasn't as important to the charts back then. If anything can help Applause right now, it's a good music video.

Yes, I'm sure she will rise with the radio deal, music video, VMAs, GMA and more promo next week. Let's not forget the song was rush released.