“Alice” pays homage to the 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, later popularized by the 1951 animated film adaptation. The tale sees young Alice fall asleep and wake up in a conceptualized fantastical world, brimming with imaginary, anthropomorphic characters, each representing an obstacle in life to overcome.

Throughout the track, Gaga connects her inability to find peace in her life to Alice’s need to survive the hardships of growing up and maintaining peace-of-mind.

The track was originally thought to be about Gaga’s childhood dog Alice, who passed away in 2013, however, Gaga denied this after revealing several lyrics in an interview with Zane Lowe.