Lady Gaga Is Still Human, Gives Good Onstage Chat

Obviously Lady Gaga has had what you would call a successful year. Relatively speaking. One of her biggest achievements this year has been the ongoing success of The Monster Ball tour which will continue to see Gaga flail around arenas will into next year, even after the release of her new album Born This Way. 

During The Monster Ball Gaga poses, prances and puts on a huge huge show. The show is thread around a loose concept with plenty of ridiculous dialogue and highly staged numbers (see my review of the show's first visit to Dublin earlier this year here. But thankfully Gaga is willing to indulge in plenty of freewheeling banter each night. A neat reminder that she is in fact human as opposed to the part popstar-part robot air she cultivates sometimes.

You just have to love that speech. Sure, the "Little Monsters" schtick has worn thin at times this year but Gaga has a natural ease with her audience that often eludes other popstars. The icing on the cake is definitely Gaga doing such a spot on impression of "The Gays". It should be cringe-tastic but is so affectionate and funny that it's impossible to dislike.

Gaga recently described the new album as "a marriage of electronic music with major, epic, dare I even say, metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats."

Which makes it sound like it might be quite undeniably amazing. 

2011 is likely to be another Gaga heavy year and thankfully it seems like she's still able to have alot of fun despite the kind of schedule that many other popstars would crumble under. I for one, can't wait. 

Happy Birthday Lady Gaga!

It's Lady Gaga's 24th birthday today. Hard to believe how ridiculously young she still is and the  amount of things she's already achieved. From bestselling albums to eye popping videos and a handful of tours under her belt her work ethic is putting every other popstar out there to shame. Maybe Gaga will have a slice of this for her birthday:

(found this on Flickr here by the way)

Below is a video of Miss Gaga having Happy Birthday sung to her by backing singers/dancers in Australia last night. I love when celebrities get Happy Birthday sung to them. It's always so ridiculous and overblown. (Video spotted on Lady-Gaga.net, my fave Gaga fansite)

Here's hoping the Lady takes time out of her busy schedule of wearing outrageous outfits, being provocative and constantly touring to you know, kick back and relish another year passing in her life. In honour of the Lady herself, her is what is still one of my favourite Gaga videos Lovegame

Lady Gaga Live: Slick, Shambolic and Stunning

Still can't quite believe that I saw Lady Gaga live in concert last weekend. I won't go into it now but safe to say I've been a huge Gaga fan since mid 2008 and I've watched her blow up in the last 18 months and loved every second of it. To finally see her live show was a real treat particularly as her first night in Dublin was only the second night of the newly re-jigged arena size version of The Monster Ball tour.

Unsurprisingly for someone who has made her name on outlandish costumes, performance art pretensions and stellar pop songs there was plenty to enjoy about the show. I loved the stage, it was quite simple but managed to fit in alot in terms of props. On tracks like Alejandaro and Love Game the props and lighting worked to spectacular effect to create stark but effective backdrops for the action. The concept of the show was part musical, part pop extravaganza and all Gaga. The basic story is of Gaga on her way to The Monster Ball and the dark things that happen all the way. Cue hokey dialogue and excuses for dance routines. It works but just about. The lines seem like a deliberate play on the programmed patter of most pop shows and when it works it really works. When it doesn't it's still quite amusing. I never thought I'd hear Lady Gaga say "Oh no! A TWISTER!" on stage but I did and it was fantastic.


Other highlights? So Happy I Could Die got across the sense of isolation and desperation in a supposedly happy club scene by elevating Gaga in a S&M style dress above the whole arena. Telephone was straightforward pop amazingness with a blindingly good dance routine and Paparazzi with it's actual on stage monster was an unbelievably striking set piece. And Bad Romance was suitably epic.

There were some niggles though. The interludes between songs were stunning pieces of high fashion pretentiousness that were beautiful to look at. But there were obvious gaps where the video wouldn't play quickly enough. Between the 2nd last song and the closing number there was a two minute gap that felt like it was in by mistake. Those odd gaps tarred an otherwise slick show.


Still even with such minor faults this is a stunning piece of pop entertainment meets high brow musical theatre. It helped that I saw with a crowd that proved just how rabid Gaga fans are. Singing along to album tracks almost as loudly as the singles there was a real sense of excitement about the place extending even to the support acts Semi Precious Weapons and Alphabeat.


It's quite staggering to think that this is the fourth tour by Lady Gaga in as many months. Between that convention busting videos, endless hit singles and mind bogglingly extensive wardrobe The Monster Ball is the icing on an already satisfying pop cake. Let's hope and pray this show gets immortalised on DVD.

Lady Gaga Phones A Fan. Mid Concert.

Saw this on Twitter earlier (thanks to Ian Healy) and I do love it. Lady Gaga whips out a phone and gives an over-excited fan a quick ring. I do love that she did this but found myself wondering throughout just HOW she got his phone number. It is a bit stalkertastic if you ask me.

And can you imagine Britney doing this? Or Madonna? Hilarious.

I'm aware that this should lead into a searing sociological style analysis of how this ties into the rapid way Gaga hs built a community of loyal followers by reconfiguring how we view fame culture and pop starlets.

But really... it is Lady Gaga. Resplendent in feathers. And phoning a probable homosexual who chants down the phone at her. While she sits at a piano mid concert. So really, my work here is done.