It’s hard to believe that it has only been seven years since Lady Gaga popped onto the scene with “Just Dance”, isn’t it? Since then, it seems like everything in pop music has changed, with Mother Monster leading the charge the entire way. Looking back at her impressive catalog of global hits—”Poker Face”, “Bad Romance”, “Telephone” and “Born This Way” are among some of the best digital sellers of all time—it’s odd to think that she became one of the biggest stars in the world so quickly, and less than a decade later, she may already be looking at an entirely new career.

Ever since her 2013 ARTPOP flop, we’ve started to see a whole new side of Gaga. We had heard about a Tony Bennett duets album, but the singer was smart enough to delay that until her last album completely flatlined (by her standards at least). Once she and the legendary crooner did drop Cheek To Cheek, the fanbases for both performers welcomed it with open arms, helping it debut at number one.

Gaga in the infamous meat dress at the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards (Steve Granitz / Getty Contributor)

In the past few months, a lot has changed with the once-wacky singer. Gone is the monster claw, the performance art-vomiting on stage and the meat dress, and in their place is a new air of class and an unexpected elegance: words that had previously never been connected to the name Lady Gaga. A quick look at her sartorial choices in the last half year shows a move from strange to glamorous, though her ability to turn heads has never waned.

This “new Gaga” has been around for a few months, but until now, nobody was sure if this was just part of the Cheek To Cheek promotional campaign or if things had really changed. It wasn’t until her performance at the Oscars the other night that it became clear that we may be witnessing one of our greatest pop stars starting a new chapter in her career. Even though she wasn’t nominated for a thing, she stole the show with her Sound of Music medley, making it one of the highlights of the show. Once the world saw that, it all clicked: This might be the Gaga we have to work with for a while.

The pop star has never stopped talking about her solo music, but the timetable is becoming murkier as the days progress. Halfway through her promotion of ARTPOP, she let slip that there was a sequel in the works, and that it might be out soon. This gave fans a jolt of excitement, but she hasn’t mentioned it since the album underperformed and she moved on to the next project. There has recently been talk of Bennett and Gaga pairing up again for a second album, with the “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” singer all but confirming it earlier this month.

The world has needed a break from the over-the-top persona of Lady Gaga for a while now, and it looks like she’s finally hearing the pleas. ARTPOP was supposed to be a reprieve from the exhausting weight of Born This Way, with its religious iconography and burdensome messages about everything from feminism to gay rights, but it didn’t quite work out the way it was supposed to. Perhaps it wasn’t different enough, or a bad taste was still lingering in some fans’ mouths. Either way, the electro-pop sound isn’t in fashion like it was when she arrived, and it hasn’t been doing for her what it used to.

Recently, Gaga has teased some interesting bits about what she’s working on musically. She posted a photo of her and Sir Paul McCartney in the studio not too long ago, showing she’s ready to jump on Rihanna and Kanye’s bandwagon. She also shared that she’s back to working with RedOne, the producer who helped her with almost all of her biggest hits.

So, are we looking at a revival of the “Just Dance”/”Bad Romance”-style Mother Monster, or are we entering a new phase of her career? Is her new album ARTPOP part two, or something else entirely? What will it sound like? There are plenty of questions about what her next move will be, and it’s very possible that even the singer herself isn’t sure what her career will look like a year from now. In fact, music might take a backseat entirely. Just today she tweeted a preview of her latest acting gig: the upcoming new season of American Horror Story. Perhaps the break we all need from here will only apply to the music world.

She’s found success going down both the high-art pop star route and the Great American Songbook avenue, so perhaps she’ll find a way to marry the two. We won’t know until we hear what she comes up with next, but one thing is likely: it’s going to be great.