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“Mama” is a narrative told from the perspective of a soldier at war. He knows his death is coming soon, so he attempts to mend his broken relationship with his mother while he still can. The song is featured on the band’s smash The Black Parade, and is loosely based on the character Mother War.
The song’s bridge contains a brief feature from actress Liza Minelli. Frontman Gerard Way opened up to Village Voice to explain how the collaboration came about:
“There was a line that was the only spot on the record that I wanted a guest vocal–I wanted a voice to finally talk back to me. And I wanted somebody kind of motherly, but who was also a survivor, had been through a lot, but was rooted in theater. And so… Liza was in! She was the first person that came to mind, and then producer Rob Cavallo had made a phone call to her assistant, and that was it. She did it for free and she was happy to do it.“
He later told The New York Times in 2019:
“I love Liza Minnelli. Black Parade was very theatrical, and we had this song ‘Mama,’ and I said, ‘You know, it would be really great in this one part to get Liza.’ Rob Cavallo, the producer, made a couple of calls and she said she would love to do it. We recorded that remotely — we were in Los Angeles, at Capitol, and she was in New York with a different engineer. It was really cool. The first time I got to speak to her was through the mixing board.“
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