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Lady Gaga proves she’s music’s greatest kook in campy Coachella thriller

BBG News

Lady Gaga looked proud enough to weep.

Looking out at the huge crowd during her Coachella performance on Friday night, the famous pop artist stopped after approximately 45 minutes to give a small talk – a heartfelt message from Lady Gaga to her devoted fans – from a balcony high up on a gothic structure she had constructed on the festival’s main stage.

She shared with everyone that she wanted to express her romantic feelings this year amidst the chaos,” she said. “So, I chose to construct an opera house in the desert for you – a symbol of all the love, joy, and strength you’ve provided me throughout my life.” She paused, her long blonde hair and voluminous white dress swaying gently in the arid wind.

Occasionally, it seems as though I stepped into a dream around the time I was twenty,” she went on. “Ever since then, I’ve been living in a dream world, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to come back to reality, because what if you weren’t there?

Think: Don’t cry for me, Coachella.

Music

On the first day of Coachella, I found myself in a whirlwind of excitement! The unexpected visits by Travis Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, and Billie Joe Armstrong truly added to the magic. But let me tell you, Blackpink’s Lisa and Missy Elliott stole the show with their stunning performances.

Lady Gaga had previously headlined a highly esteemed music festival, which wasn’t her debut in 2017. She took over at short notice when Beyoncé withdrew due to pregnancy. However, the sudden replacement situation didn’t give Gaga enough time to carry out all her original plans, as she explained to The Times last year.

On Friday, she made up for it by presenting an extravagant show over a span of two hours. The performance featured 20 songs and multiple costume changes, much like what one might expect from Coachella’s carefully managed livestream. This elaborate event served as a platform for Gaga to showcase her latest album, “Mayhem,” which is seen as her comeback to high-concept pop after a few years of acting, jazz performances, and falling in love.

Is it your opinion that the play, divided by her into four acts and an ending, clearly followed a single narrative or was easy to understand? No, I wouldn’t say so—although a narration at the beginning hinted that it revolved around two selves fighting for dominance over a soul.

Nevertheless, each standalone scene was filled with such vibrant, humorous, and eccentric elements that the story ultimately portrayed Lady Gaga’s acceptance of her position as music’s most extraordinary iconoclast.

In “Poker Face”, she orchestrated a simulated chess game using her dancers as if they were chess pieces. In “Perfect Celebrity” and “Disease”, she was seen thrashing in a shallow grave filled with the undead. For “Paparazzi”, she wore chrome armor and limped on crutches, performing across the stage. “Zombieboy” was a complex dance routine where Lady Gaga danced provocatively with a skeleton.

The playlist combined fresh tunes with well-loved hits: “Bloody Mary” followed by “Abracadabra,” then “Judas,” and finally “Sheiße,” a German number that featured large feather quills and a Last Supper-inspired scene. Following the ’80s pop-funk of “Shadow of a Man,” where she donned a seductive military uniform, she seemed to acknowledge her fiancé, Michael Polansky, and thanked the audience for reuniting her with her partner.

At her performance, Gaga was supported by a live band and a few string musicians. The renowned French DJ and composer Gesaffelstein, who collaborated on “Mayhem,” played keyboards alongside her, contributing to an intense rendition of the album’s “Killah.” Gaga played the piano during “Die With a Smile” and “Shallow”. These songs didn’t seem to align with the overall theme of a haunted opera, but then again, who’s keeping track? (Gaga prefaced “Shallow” by reminiscing about her last time at Coachella, where she filmed parts of “A Star Is Born” at the festival.)

Similar to nearly every major Coachella performance since Beyoncé returned in 2018, Lady Gaga’s show was meticulously designed for YouTube broadcast. It featured cameras mounted on drones, wires, and handheld by crew members moving backward as they filmed the singer walking down a long runway linking the main stage to a smaller platform on the polo field. A camera focused on her lower body during the graveyard sequence transmitted fuzzy footage of Gaga’s rhythmic movements to the massive video screens surrounding the stage.

Despite the complexity of the show, it was evident that Lady Gaga still derives immense joy from performing for an audience – a regal demonstration of her stardom, indeed, yet also a heartfelt recognition that she needs the people to fuel her energy. Throughout the performance, she sang live, displaying a powerful and bold voice; during pauses between songs, the sound of her heavy breathing through her headset microphone was audible. As she concluded her main set (preceding an anticipated encore of “Bad Romance”), she performed a poignant new track, “Vanish Into You,” where she descended from the stage to connect with fans at the barrier.

In a more straightforward manner, she expressed, “It might not be possible for me to greet everyone with a high-five, but I can certainly serenade you instead.” As she walked among her countless supporters, someone offered her a black artificial flower. She playfully imagined it as a microphone and utilized it – effortlessly, endearingly, skillfully – for the remainder of the song.

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2025-04-12 21:01

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