Bruno Mars wrote the opening verse and chorus of Die with a Smile in 2021, then left it as an unfinished demo for about a year because he could not work out how to develop it. The core idea, being beside someone if the world were ending, was already there. When he returned to it with the producer D'Mile and the songwriter James Fauntleroy, they made only two or three versions rather than the usual hundred, and the second was already close to the final arrangement. Lady Gaga heard it in the studio and was blown away, which is how the duet came together.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.