On Sunday, Feb. 5, something epic happened, and I’m not talking about the close game between the Patriots and Falcons. Lady Gaga had one of the best halftime shows in a while. Jeffrey from the 102.7 Morning Show said on Monday morning, “The best moment in history happened for 13 minutes at the halftime show last night!” Lady Gaga is the first solo act to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show since Paul McCartney in 2005.
Lady Gaga began her performance on top of NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, with a patriotic medley that consisted of “God Bless America” and Woody Gunthrie’s popular protest song, “This Land is Your Land.” Then, Gaga uttered the words, “…and justice for all” from our pledge of allegiance with such genuineness and grace.
This whole segment of her performance was a precise subtle message to America saying that we need to remember who and what America really is – a nation made by all people and for ALL of us, not just a select few. Her message here has been compared to, and seems to be more well received by the public, Beyonce’s performance with Coldplay last year during Super Bowl 50 (L).
People loved Gaga’s shout out to America in her performance with tweets going on about how cool it was that she jumped down from the top of the stadium with hundreds of drones behind her, forming the American flag.
Her halftime show was noted as one of the most tweeted about, and also included her flipping in the air as she descended onto the stage to begin her medley of hits from over the years. All of that was only the first 90 seconds of her thirteenminute long performance.
Her show began with a little bit of “Edge of Glory” and went right into “Pokerface.” Next was Gaga’s subtle reminder that we should love everyone for who they are and that we were all “Born This Way.” This was followed by some more of her classics such as “Telephone” and “Just Dance,” which had the whole crowd dancing!
The halftime show drifted in a different direction when Gaga played “Million Reasons” off of her new album, Joanne. Her hair was completely down and she had removed the gem mask from around her eyes. By this point in the show, we were able to literally see the transformation that she has been making with her career over the past few years, right on stage. Her heart wrenching performance of “Million Reasons” paired with her entrance into the crowd to hug her fans brought some tears to my eyes.
Lady Gaga’s performance did not just end there. She closed out the halftime show with a highly theatrical and ‘athletic’ performance of her hit, “Bad Romance.” She changed her outfit to a white top that was made to resemble a jersey with shoulder pads and silver sequined bottoms with her matching boots. She even ended the performance by jumping off the stage and catching a football.
Aja Armstrong, a sophomore Music Industry student, described the performance as simply “iconic.”
Mike Grant, a junior music industry student, reflected on Lady Gaga’s performance and said that he was, “someone who never got the hype of Lady Gaga,” and thought he didn’t like her, but this turned him into a huge fan.
Grant continued to describe Gaga’s halftime performance as, “a performance that is only (debatably) rivaled by Beyoncé’s memorable 2016 VMAs performance and did exactly what the halftime show is for—to entertain and excite.”
Overall, her performance was amazing and was loved across generations. Facebook feeds were dominated by parents raving about what a class act Gaga is and her tremendous talent.
However, this halftime performance was not the only big surprise Lady Gaga had for her fans. Gaga also announced a world tour for her newest album, Joanne, for later this year. The tour will be stopping in this area at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA on Nov. 20 and at Citi Field in Flushing, NY on Aug. 28.
America has been graced with Super Bowl halftime shows for 51 years now. For the first 20 years of Super Bowl history, the halftime performances were usually high school and college marching bands. By the 90s, we began to see acts like N*SYNC and Mary J. Blige take the stage. During this year’s Super Bowl, some reminisced on Prince’s super Bowl performance in 2007 to honor him. Throughout the 51 years of performances, there have been some amazing and then not so amazing moments. Lady Gaga’s performance was more than amazing, it was spectacular!
