Lady Gaga live in Cape Town! Is it possible to write anything without controversy being the first association that comes to mind? It just seems like one ingenious marketing strategy to me, because it works.
WEIRD AND WRONG
Lady Gaga’s been banned from performing in numerous countries due to her gay rights and sexual equality activism. Gay marriage is legal in South
Africa but imagine we lived in a country where the government literally banned performers who promoted sexual equality for both men and women as well as gay rights. Corruption is a bad thing, that everyone agrees on, but living in a country where the government forces people to live a straight lifestyle is TOTALLY WEIRD AND WRONG! I’d take President Zuma, his shower and his 5 wives any day over suppression like that.
BRAINWASHED
I felt so sorry for the zealot I saw outside the stadium reading the bible to us on the way in. I truly pity him because I know he believes in his heart that he’s trying to save us from being brain washed by Lady Gaga but really, who is brain washed? It takes balls to stand alone exercising your freedom of speech when you’re 1 in 45 000 – literally. I question, did his family not teach him about art? Acting? plays? Performances? Characters? Or marketing at least?! Lady Gaga uses shock art to draw attention to her socio political agenda. I suppose this zealot also opposes gay marriage and equal rights, in which case, let’s thank God that he stands alone (damn I love irony!).
CONTROVERSY
So much hoo-ha has been made over Lady G, I felt that she was compelled to go over the top. She sings of Judas but she herself is taking the fall for many. LG has become the pin up girl for equality, she takes the hate, bans, religious activism in the name of freedom. You’ve got to respect her for trying to “be the change you see in the world” as the famous quote goes. I’ve never seen her swear in interviews so I was surprised that she dropped the F-bomb as much as she did. Her speech on “I Don’t Give a Fuck” was comical and prevalent. As she said, she may be viewed as a freak “but at least I know who the fuck I am.” She thanked the audience for buying tickets to her show, supporting her and changing her life from a waitress in 2007 to a pop star who made it in Africa in 2012. Sounds like a pretty polite, well bred, incredible 26 year old to me. Not very controversial after all.
FASHION
Her stage had a giant castle on it with the band hidden inside that opened, closed and changed shape. The show started with her going around the golden circle aka Monster Pit on a horse (made of humans) looking like a glitter bombed Predator. Next she popped out of a vagina (you think after thousands of years of human birth we’d be over this by now); a fitting entrance since her album is called Born This Way. She got pushed around in a white triangle dress looking like R2D2 with an oversized white bicycle helmut on her head. She came in on what seemed like a remote controlled motor bike, a white Taurus cross Ram face face mask, pink wig like in the Judas video, an egg! I mustn’t forget the egg and lastly, hung from a butcher’s rail and meat couch. Oh! She also had military pants and a machine gun with gun bra – definitely an update on Madonna’s famous cone-bra.
ART
Lady Gaga played the piano with Elton John confidence, it’s not surprising since she used to write for the Pussy Cat Dolls. She sang really well, very powerful and character filled voice. When she brought 5 Little Monsters up from the Monster Pit she even let one of them sing the Born This Way chorus, it was hilarious and lots of fun as the fans freaked out about being so close to her. She was very kind to the entire audience which I appreciated, we are spending our hard earned cash on her product after all.
Lady Gaga put on an excellent show, filled with art, theatre, music, comedy and joy. I’d definitely see her again but this time I’d like to be even closer cause damn, 55 000 is BIG!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGI3DcYgA1M
P.S The Darkness opened for Lady Gaga and they were a hoot. He did look like he’d taken a few too many drugs in his lifetime but hey, that’s rock n roll!
