"Disease" was the first preview of new music from her seventh album; the follow-up to 2020's, Chromatica. The track was released after her standalone collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile.”

Lady Gaga shared that the track was about “facing that fear, facing myself and my inner darkness, and realizing that sometimes I can’t win or escape the parts of myself that scare me. That I can try and run from them but they are still part of me and I can run and run but eventually I’ll meet that part of myself again, even if only for a moment.”