As I said yesterday, I wasn’t crazy about Lady Gaga’s David Bowie tribute at the Grammys. I didn’t think she was horrible, and I could feel her effort in trying to pay appropriate homage to such a groundbreaking artist. But… I think the Grammy producers made a mistake in having Gaga as the only artist, because her set fell apart after Ziggy Stardust. Again, I know Gaga was trying (she was apparently in tears before she performed) and I know she was feeling it. I was not feeling it though, and her terrible “Heroes” cover was enough to make me write her off. Well, it seems like Bowie’s son Duncan Jones might also have an issue with Gaga’s tribute.
"overexcited or irrational, typically as a result of infatuation or excessive enthusiasm; mentally confused." Damn it! What IS that word!?
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 16, 2016
That’s the definition of “gaga,” just FYI. Duncan’s tweet is being described as “shade” or a “slam,” but I’m not sure? He tweeted this around the same time as Gaga’s Grammy performance. I think “cryptic” is the better descriptor, because I have no idea if Duncan loved or hated Gaga’s performance. But… if you go to that tweet and read the comments, you’ll see that Gaga’s Little Monsters (are they still calling themselves that?) are going HAM. Like, Gaga’s fans think the best way to honor David Bowie is by screeching at his son because he isn’t giving enough respect to Gaga. Sample comments: “She honored your father In a way no other artist would,” “It’s cruel and mean spirited to attack lady gaga who gave her all to honor and entertain,” “At least @ladygaga isn’t a professional failure like you are.” How pleasant.
You know what bugged me about Gaga’s performance in addition to the fact that it was more about Lady Gaga than David Bowie? The fact that she got paid by Intel for it.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It was manic and pretty awful and now knowing she was paid for it, sorry nope that’s tacky. If she was such a huge fan she’d have refused that. She’s turned a tribute into a marketing gimmick so, f*ck you gaga for that.
I don’t hate her but it was like bad cabaret, and none of the soul or heart of Bowie’s music was there and I genuinely think especially the Bowie of now would have hated it. If she had just kept to the face display with the projections it might have been ok.
And yes her hardcore fans are downright nasty and she never calls them on it, which bugs me
Nasty people breed nasty fans.
She knows her fans are nasty, she uses them as a shield and defense which is ironic from someone who went to the White House to promote anti-bullying. The only time she ever spoke I’m and called them wrong was when the media noticed she didn’t say anything to her fans when they bullied Adele.
It was a pale imitation-it had none of Bowie’s Joie de vivre, none of the spirit. It just proved that there was only one Bowie, and gaga and her ilk come nowhere close. It’s not just about the songs you sing.
I liked the Major Tom intro, and then it was a huge fail for me.
It was like a bad Drag King Vegas cabaret act.
That is apparently what Duncan Jones was implying, that she was using his father’s death as a means of self promotion and profit.
Also, you are correct, her fans are nasty bullies. Isn’t Gaga, the phony, supposed to be against bullying? LOL!!!
I was underwhelmed as well. Screechy, overdone and ham-fisted are the words I’d use. Gaga indeed…
I don’t think it’s cryptic at all. He didn’t like it.
Straight up! I couldn’t bring myself to watch it, but now I don’t have to.
Yeah, he didn’t like it but he was smart enough not to go all full Kanye caps lock on Twitter about the fact that he didn’t like it. That didn’t stop the Gaga stans from going off anyway. (It’s his father, you idiots. You didn’t know him, he did. Now shut up).
This tweet made me realise that Bowie’s family weren’t involved. That’s not cool. And it doubled up as an ad for Intel? Urgh.
Was just gonna post that. He wasn’t cryptic in the least.
No, definitely not.
Yes, I’d say he was pretty clear. Clever, too. I thought the performance was like a bad lounge act and I cannot believe she got paid. What a joke of a tribute.
I am appalled at her fans.
It’s pretty bad she was paid for it to with the Intel deal. It’s all about her as usual.
Considering all the anti-bullying stuff and the foundation she started (does that still exist) I have never once seen her say to her fans anything along the lines of “be nice and respect others opinions”.
But generally, going “gaga” over something is generally seen as a compliment. But I guess if he meant it that way he would clarify?
I read this in People and I didn’t understand why they were staying he “slammed” Lady Gaga either. His tweet left me scratching my head because I’m not sure what he’s getting at, but it doesn’t come across an an outright slam.
He’s allowed to not like it.
Yep.
Totally. I’m aghast that anyone would even question Bowie’s SON having an opinion on that performance – good, bad or indifferent.
The intel / house of gaga commercial was truly in poor taste and took away any sincerity which is why I think most people thought it made it even worse!
Actually, that was rather exquisitely done, but most definitely shade.
It’s perfect.
-TheRealPinky
Agreed. I think David Bowie would have laughed reading that.
Right? It’s actually quite brilliant.
Agreed. Beautifully cast shade.
Yes! So many other instances of so called shade are not. But that right there? That’s how you SHADE with style.
I was fully prepared to love it and was surprised by how much I didn’t like it. It was a lackluster performance without heart or soul.
Still, who cares? Just listen to a Bowie song ….
I think it’ a case of Gaga being overexposed at this point. She seems to be everywhere. I literally lost my appetite for her when she did the thanksgiving special- did that really happen? Then when she went to the Grammy’s in an egg, etc. Anyway, she’s now doing too much and too little at the same time. I would say she is over-working.
I couldn’t get through the performance, too much second hand embarrassment.
I think the son is obviously not a fan of her or this performance.
She was so embarrassing! Ugh.
I watched it yesterday to see if it really was a shit show or well done …. Embarrassing shit show. Of course Duncan shaded her. And since it’s a paid performance and not just an homage from an admirer, she deserved the shade. What a hot mess.
I didn’t see it but based on what I’ve read and what she’s wearing, it kind of seems like it was about Ldy Gaga and not really about David Bowie at all, other than the fact that it was his music.
I also don’t think that tweet was at all cryptic. it sent a very clear messGe.
You know what? Duncan has every right to slam Gaga’s tribute. I highly doubt he, Iman and Lexi were even asked about who they thought would have been good choices to be part of the tribute to David OR were even IINVITED to the Grammys.
and …so nice to see Gagas little bullies came out in droves after Duncan. How ‘inclusive’ of them. And calling Duncan a failure? He just finished directing the Warcraft movie and will begin production on Mute very shortly.
Considering Gaga now thinks she’s an ‘actress’ maybe her fans should be a bit nicer to him…
Obviously he wasn’t impressed. Honoring his father was a given and he should have expected that. But she tried to morph herself into David and doesn’t have the skill or mindset to do so. The tattoo was gratuitous and over the top and when she’s 50 will probably wonder what she was thinking…..his face on her ribs to get people talking about a Grammy performance. Looney Tune……
It wasn’t a tribute to anything but Gaga’s over-inflated ego. The whole thing was about her; the tattoo, the crying photo, and the frenetic performance. Honestly, it started well with the first song, then it was as if whatever she took backstage kicked it and it turned into a coked-out second-rate Vegas drag show.
This! Gaga can’t help herself. She doesn’t know how to pay homage to anybody or anything. She only knows how to promote herself and garner attention.
I think it’s a shame that Bowie’s family wasn’t involved in the tribute if that’s what we’re calling it. The tribute for BB King had several amazing guitarists and blues singers involved – not just a single person basking in the spotlight. They should have done the same for Bowie. I didn’t understand the choice before I watched the Grammys. I was doubly confounded after watching it. I don’t think it’s wise for someone performing a tribute to try to morph into the honoree. It’s not possible, it doesn’t work, and for some reason, it’s offensive. You’re honoring someone and their work. You shouldn’t try to be that someone because it wreaks of ego and the idea that you’re as good as that person which is never the case. Legends are legends because they are unique. Nobody tried to be BB King on stage. They played his music the way they play his music. It was obviuos that every single one of them from Chris Stapleton to Bonnie Raitt, was greatly influenced by King and he inspired their blues roots. Was Gaga ever really inspired by Bowie? Do we ever hear Bowie in any of her music? No. I don’t beleive he was ever anybody who played a part in her love of music. They asked her to pay homage simply because she is controversial and crossed gender bounderies. It was never about the art.
Agree with both of you.
It was incredibly disappointing, especially because I thought she gave such a lovely, moving performance at the Super Bowl. It really was more of a promotion for Intel- some of the visuals were awesome- than it was a tribute to Bowie. In my mind, a sincere Bowie Tribute would be something like this: start with MGMT performing Let’s Dance, move to Brandon Flowers performing Modern Love, then have Bruce Springsteen perform “Rebel, Rebel,” followed by Natalie Merchant performing her gorgeous cover of “Space Oddity,” and have it end with the Rolling stones and a gospel choir performing “Dancing in the Street.”
Why aren’t you in charge of coordinating the Grammies?! Get on that, plz
For the Super Bowl performance I think she managed to step back and realize it isn’t about her. She should have done this here but we all knew she would make the Bowie tribute about herself and she proved us right.
That would have been far, far better.
I was thinking that Gaga could have done a decent job by just straight up singing his songs. Calmly, with gravity, and with a backing orchestra or something grand. She tried to channel his persona and stage presence rather than pay tribute to his music and that’s where she went horribly wrong. If she honored Bowie like she did Julie Andrews and it would have been far better and more respectful of him as a musician even if it wasn’t his personal style at all.
She sounded beautiful at the SB but I still cannot stand her and what she represents.
I got teary-eyed just imagining your version of a tribute. That would have been awesome and completely in-line with my preference that several artists should pay tribute the way they play his music, not trying to be him, and not allowing the opportunity for any individual to hog the stage.
I love your idea. It’s weird they decided to do something so cheesy (and commercial, wtf) with Bowie, when the other tributes during the show were more like you described.
That would have been really lovely.
I’ve been watching Bowie tributes on youtube, so many musicians did them, and most of them are great.
I agree there should have been a multi-artist tribute. Lady Gaga nailed Ziggy Stardust but Bowie had so many more dimensions. With the current social political tone, an all star diverse performance of ‘Heroes’ and Young Americans’ would have blown the roof.
It’s not cryptic. He didn’t like it. I would guess he thought it was over the top and campish and didn’t represent the artist that Bowie truly was. That comment has gone viral, calling it shade, and he has not responded once to rebuke that, nor responded to all the Little Monsters coming onto his twitter. Plus she was in the commercial for Intel promoting Intel using her Bowie performance. I find that tacky, as did I am for sure Duncan did. Duncan grew up on tour with his father and all through his years as an artist and what he stood for. He knew his father wouldn’t like that type of performance.
To also add, Tony Visconti, Bowie’s longtime producer, and friend, who also produced The Next Day and Blackstar, his last two albums, tweeted glowingly during the Grammys about Kendrick Lamar and how David would have loved that performance and also about Alabama Shakes, how real deserving people are winning Grammys this year. He said nothing about Gaga’s performance, nothing, not even when asked on twitter, didn’t respond.
Gaga gets a tattoo two days before the Grammys and videotapes it and posts it “for attention.” Right before the red carpet Gaga is getting her full makeup done and she posts a very up-close photo of her with tears rolling down her face to show how emotional she is while preparing for and listening to Bowie music. If it was such an emotional moment, how did she in that moment decide to do a selfie to show the world how she was crying? Me, me, me. Look at me.
Last night she showed up at an event with her orange Bowie wig on. Me, Me, Me. Look at my connection to Bowie, milking it still.
She didn’t know Bowie. He wasn’t a fan of her music. She is now latching on to him like she’s the biggest fan in the world and his muse and making it about her. David Bowie died. He was beloved He is missed by many artists who were influenced musically by him and fans. This is not about her..
It is off-putting to me, and I am sure to Duncan and Tony Visconti.
All of this!
very well said.
All correct, she’s such an ugly soul with the way she constantly manipukates and uses
reminds me of what happened when Alexander McQueen died
YES. Every single word–YES.
+1
Never a truer comment.
True as hell. Well said.
When I first tuned the station to the Grammy’s, that Intel commecial was on and I didn’t know it wasn’t part of the show. I knew Gaga would be paying tribute to Bowie, so when I saw her and Bowie on the backdrop, I assumed I was watching the Grammy’s. It wasn’t until the commercial was over that I realized it wasn’t her Grammy performance. That is wrong on so many levels – ego, greed, disrespect, using. Don’t the people in charge think these things through?
Yes, to every single word you wrote!
Yes to all of that!! The truest words in this comment section
I saw that close up photo. She caption it “Everyone loves you David” or something like that, but it was still a giant photo of her face! So self absorbed.
There’s a Guardian piece on her tribute. It says the tribute was part of her apology tour for the commercial failure of Art Pop. I can see why she tries so hard these days. I’ve said before that she deserves a comeback because she’s very nice to her fans but everything she does is so contrived and forced. She isn’t a spontaneous artist. My only issue with the tribute is that it was very literal. It reduced David’s legacy into cosplay characters. Other than that, I was OK with it.
I thought her performance was very Liza Minelli … Jazz hands!
Totally. Took the words right outta my mouth. I was screaming at the tv. It was Liza, accessoried with the King’s jumpsuit and Liberace’s feathers. I asked my husband if we were being Punk’d. Also reminded me of the SNL skit of Sally O’Malley “I’m 50!!!” with all the leg kicks, weird dancing and jazz hands.
Total disgrace. Nile Rodgers should be ashamed for co-signing that mess.
Duncan didn’t like it and Gaga got paid. Okay . It’s showbiz people.
Yeah, why are people making such a big deal out of this? It’s not like David Bowie will now be forgotten or dismissed as an artist because Gaga did a crappy tribute. And on the other hand, Gaga just did a crappy tribute. It’s not like she peed on his coffin. You’re allowed not to like it but let’s not turn this into a bigger deal than it was. And Duncan’s tweet is about the tamest, most inoffensive way Gaga has been described by her naysayers.
Because he’ll only have that one tribute at that one Grammys and she ruined it by making it all about herself. Bowie got the shaft and it pi$$es some of us off.
Well, I may be too cynical, but the Grammy is about business TODAY. Besides, I think that Bowies’ real power is that in spite of his phenomenal influence he’s always been subversive. The Grammy’s is mainstream record sales TODAY.
It’s just business.
The Grammy awards are actually about last year 2015 – hence, album of the year. Tributes to legends whove passed away have nothing to with sales or today. They are an extra added to the show’s awards. The other tributes were thoughtful and well-done. Bowie’s was not.
The problem with Gaga’s performance is that it slid from tribute to impersonation to parody very quickly. Left me cringing.
That is the shadier of the shadiest things ever posted on twitter. So much that maybe many people didn’t even get it.
Gaga’s tribute/parody was more a Las Vegas/Reno tribute act on those nights when the real celebrity doesn’t turn up to perform.
I’m mostly appalled by a bunch of idiots attacking a man on line whose father has just died. And all for a performer whom you do not know personally and does not give a crap about you.
(even if she lies and says she does in order to sell you records…)
Those very close to Bowie were similarly “cryptic” or not on the this subject. Take a look at Brian Eno’s tweets–links to articles about Duncan’s tweet, Tony Visconti pointedly makes no reference to her but does to Kendrick Lamar, and Carlos Alomar also chose to reference the salute to B.B. King, not Gaga. This sums it up. As many have said, she tries way too hard and her earnest, literal performance while maybe sincere, did not remotely capture the spirit of Bowie who was the opposite of this in every way.
Thanks. I didn’t know that about Brian Eno and Carlos Alomar. I had read Tony’s tweets and posted about that.
Im worried about her face. In that performance she looked like Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus.
Gaga got a Bowie tattoo before the awards. She performance was planned before Bowie died so I’m thinking they decided to honor him using her scheduled performance. She has stated in every interview that she thanks him for inspiring her and that she wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. So you guys are seeing something disrespectful in place where’s none. Sorry. she sang her heart out and you guys are demonizing her. You guys would’ve torn her to shreds regardless. It wasn’t the best performance but it definitely wasn’t “embarassing”
I do think that Lady Gaga was a big fan of Bowie, and she is obviously dramatic by nature so I give her a pass on the over the top emotions before and after the performance. Still her performance was more a bad impersonation and yes embarrassing. The sad part is it didn’t need to be, the cutting up of the songs the frenetic pace of the numbers really did her in. It would have served her better to pick less songs. I was very disappointed, and to hear she got paid by Intel, very sad indeed.
If Gaga didn’t want to turn her performance into a Bowie tribute, nobody forced her to. I’m sure the Grammy producers would have been happy for Gaga to give her big performance as scheduled and also participate in a separate Bowie tribute. But in that case, I’m sure the Grammy producers would not have given over the entire Bowie tribute to her. She would have been only one of the participants, and she couldn’t have that since she wanted to prove that she’s Bowie’s #1 superfan and heir to his legacy.
Gaga’s tribute was a maniacal, shrieking mess. I am so disappointed. I thought she would do something really special but sadly that tribute was embarrassingly bad. Even when Bowie was tearing through a crazy song he was always elegant and cool. How could Gaga and the producers think that seizure of a performance was the way to go?
This performance genuinely upset me. He was such an important and influential artist who deserved so much more than a tribute from a random pop act who has nothing to do with him. She turned it into a commercial for Gaga and Intel, and to top it off she has the audacity to post a selfie of herself covered in tears beforehand. If there was anything genuine about it,she wouldn’t have taken the time to take a selfie.
He deserved a stage full of people who loved and admired him, not a publicity hungry fraud using him to revive her career. I’m frankly shocked the backlash hasn’t been worse.
To be honest Glen Frey and Lemmy Kilmister’s tributes were also disappointing as Frey’s got cut off at the beginning, and Hollywood Vampires were just yuck but to me better than Gaga. BB King’s was the best, with Maurice’s Whites second, but Maurice’s tribute just seemed short and juxtaposed next to an award in a weird way. The whole show seemed cut up weird. It had no flow.
I thought Natalie Cole’s tribute was simply amazing.
(Insert snarky tone)
All of this. The Grammy’s made a tribute to him into some lame Gaga commercial when it should have been a celebration of all races, ages and genders like Bowie would have wanted.
Everytime I hear about Lady Gaga as some great artist or cutting edge maverick I want to throw up. She’s about as dangerous as an episode of GLEE.
What do her little monsters think of her getting paid by Intel for her Bowie tribute? I’m sure they can justify it as part of her ‘art’.
“She’s about as dangerous as an episode of GLEE.”
HAHAHAHA! Best burn and so true!
That’s the most accurate way to describe her performance. Any chance she’s donating her fee to a cancer charity or setting up any kind of music scholarship?
Her tribute (or I as I like to call it paid for Intel commercial) was a mess, I feel sorry for Duncan and his family right now, it seems there are a lot of people trying to make David’s death about them and profiting off of it, Beck and Dave Grohl did a nice tribute to David this weekend, nothing fancy just a bunch of musicians paying respect. As for them bashing Duncan, I have no words, he just lost his father to long battle to cancer, he knows what his father would like or not and out of anyone he has the right to voice his opinion and personally he did in a classy shade way. Personally I believe Bowie wouldn’t want any fuss made about him and would have preferred the time went to honoring other musicians. A fun side note David was a huge fan of Kendrick’s album and said to have been listening to it while recording Blackstar.
it really meant he hated her performance. so did i.
This sort of financial creative sellout is everything Bowie stood against. He was an artiste first and always, the fame and money didn’t matter to him. As usual Gaga made this about her and her rampaging ego. She’s talented but NOWHERE NEAR Bowie and his talent. She was the wrong choice.
Saying that the entire Grammys show was a car crash from beginning to end.
Bowie wasn’t against advertising. I think he did a Pepsi commercial mid-80’s and also let his music be used in ads on a regular basis. But there is a time and a place. The tribute segued directly into the Intel ad and it was hard to tell them apart. Also, Nile Rodgers and others did so much press hyping the Intel technology, it made the whole tribute seem like one big sponsored ad, and that was really inappropriate.
Yes. Bowie did more than a few advertisements. One really good one is for Vittel.
He endorsed a lot of products in his heyday and very recently a car. Lots of hilarious Japanese commercials can be found on YouTube. Water, Sake, some weird snacks. Outside UK, no one really cares about artists doing advertisements. It’s just a job to us but in the UK doing ads especially in Japan is considered a sellout.
It reminded me of a bad SNL sketch. Remember the Sweeney Sisters from the 1980s where they’d go from song to song really quickly? That’s what it was like. I understand wanting to acknowledge all of the great songs by David Bowie, but it would have been better if Lady Gaga just did one song. Maybe Life on Mars or something.
It was just like SNL. Although why I was expecting anything different from what we got is beyond me. The Grammys typically suck and the only reason I watched any of it this year was for the Bowie tribute. Lesson learned.
Oh it’s shade alright.
*sips tea*
Because THAT isn’t the full definition to gaga that he’s quoting, he left off one very key part. I laughed the second I realized it yesterday.
If anybody has the right to criticize Lady Gaga’s performance it’s Bowie’s son. He didn’t like it. I didn’t like it.
That was terrible. Lady Gaga is no bueno. A better tribute would have been a well edited montage of his own work and life. But Lady Gaga sells, so it’s only business as usual. If you’re looking for art, network television should probably not be your first stop.
I felt like Gaga turned it from a tribute to David Bowie to attention-seeking for herself. Same thing with getting the tattoo. The fact that she’s grieving a man who very clearly influenced her persona in such a public and performative way makes me think that it’s not real, it’s just another self-aggrandizing move. She seems like she wants to be the replacement Bowie. It’s unoriginal and unimaginative and the most un-Bowie thing I can think of. I know people can mourn celebrities without having met them, but this whole thing, up to and including her look for the evening, just looks like she’s saying “Pay attention to meeeeee I’m paying tribute to David Bowie, but notice how much like him I am!”
Same with that selfie while crying, if it’s genuine, why show it to the world?
Gaga’s tribute was bad but the reactions people have to it just puzzle me. You act like Gaga erased Bowie from history and took a dump on his grave. It was a mediocre performance. It could’ve been better. Eh, so? David Bowie’s legacy remains absoutely intact. This is not the only Bowie tribute there will be anyway.
This is not in reference to Duncan’s tweet, which I also think is being blown out of proportion. At most, he’s just saying he didn’t like the performance. As far as twitter shades go, that’s very inoffensive.
It’s not that the performance was lacking, that would have been sad, but alright. The problem for me was that she made it into the Gaga show, and advertising Intel while at it. She’s using his death to get back into relevancy and it’s disgusting. I really feel she shouldn’t get away with it, like she got away with buying awards and writing songs on the horror of rape while having worked with sex offenders.
I thought that Gaga’s tribute was horrible – I stopped watching about a third of the way through. And it’s awful and tacky that she got paid by Intel. However, why did Duncan need to tweet anything about her performance? Just let it be. I thought his tweet was in poor taste.
Not her best but not her worst either.
He has all the right to say whatever he wants on twitter, but at this point he’s lacking of class as much as Gaga did with that tribute. Silence. Dignity. Let them do.
I loved his film Moon, but I’m so disappointed he signed off to direct future Box office bomb of a video game based movie Warcraft. What was he thinking? The trailers and the footage I saw on Comic Con were terrible.
“you’ll see that Gaga’s Little Monsters (are they still calling themselves that?) are going HAM.”
When was Mother Monster’s last hit again?
Ohhhhh, that’s right. She doesn’t make hits anymore. Honestly, these fans…..they don’t have lives. They live online. They breathe everything EXCEPT reality. They are made for the margins of life. Let them fester, their outrage is only in the digital form. They are voiceless outside of their keyboards.
Her team bought the Billboard, bought the Golden Globe. When you’ve failed in one section of the entertainment industry, you have to throw money at other sections to stay relevant. If she wants to play that way then let her play that way – but it means Gaga’s talent has gone indefinitely dormant and her desperation fills the vacancy.
Is… is that a… spi…spi…spider crawling across her face in the video or is it fake/makeup? I’m pathologically afraid of spiders, so I couldn’t concentrate on anything else in this article and I sure as hell can’t watch the video.
@ Kaiser
I have to agree with you on all points.
I like lady gaga (not a huge fan by any means, I did love her with tony Bennett when they preformed in austin- her talent truly shined). I think she is a great talent but her David Bowie tribute performance at the Grammys was not exceptional. I was disappointed. Now even more disappointed to learn about her Intel deal. But whatever, more so about her performance which didn’t meet my expectations. It def would have been better with other artists involved. The Smashing Pumpkins cover of Fame is kickass. Overall I found most of the performances blah. Btw, I am a musician, not that it makes my opinion more valid but I was bored.
It wasnt cryptic. He didnt like it and didnt have the spine to just come out and say so. Instead, posting some sort of shady mean-girl comment that he knew would get people riled up.
Thats not very nice. I agree with this comment: ““It’s cruel and mean spirited to attack lady gaga who gave her all to honor and entertain,” . It *was* mean spirited and, quite frankly, beneath him to say something like that.
If people want to give him a pass because he is the offspring of an artist who recently died, then fine. But he cant sit back and assume that if he puts something out there, he isnt going to get it returned in spades.
In a similar vein, i dont agree with the nasty troll tweets from Lady Gaga’s fans in response, taking aim at Duncan’s career and so on. Its just as bad and unacceptable.
Everyone involved in this is coming across like spoilt brats.
Lady Gaga was scheduled to a commercial with Intel at least a month before David Bowie’s death. The Verge posted an article about her doing a project with them the first week of January. She was going to do a commercial with them anyway, the idea of including David Bowie probably came after the fact.
All of this over-exposure just waters down most of her projects. However, she can take on a lot , and I can’t imagine another pop star would do everything full tilt.
Does anyone think the Grammy’s did this on purpose just to get everyone talking about them? I hope that’s not true and I’m just being cynical, but it just seems like such an odd choice – having Gaga do it, and having Gaga do it solo. Harumph…
Professional failure? Huh? Jones is acclaimed. He’s successful even without dragging Daddy to his career.
It’s kind of amazing how little his father is brought up in regards to his career. I loved Moon and Source Code, an didn’t even know he was Bowie’s kid til years after those films came out. His work really does standalone. Of course connections likely helped him jump start his career, but unlike with other celebrity children, there’s never been any suggestion that he doesn’t deserve every bit of success he’s gotten.
I don’t believe that no one thought of a collective performance, but imagine getting a bunch of egos together to perform Bowie? Madonna wouldn’t share the same stage with GaGa. Rihanna was out that day due to a supposed medical complaint. And on it went.
All in all GaGa did the best she could, but the performance still lacked because she tried to sound like Bowie in some of the songs and it didn’t come off well.
I don’t think Duncan is being complimentary, far from it, but the fact that he is Bowie’s son doesn’t give him the right to be nasty. It’s a tribute to his father and maybe they could not get other performers or arrange a collective performance.
A quote from someone on the internet regarding their feelings and thoughts about her performance. I thought it was really on point.
“So what went wrong, exactly? I’d tend to agree with the folks who’ve mentioned that Gaga did her best, and can’t really hate on her for not bringing to the table, something she didn’t have. Aside from this performance, I wish her well, and while I can’t say I like her, I don’t dislike her either.
Regardless, this tribute reeked. I think it reeked because, for whatever Bowie did at a given point in time, he did it with sincerity and intelligence. He had his flash and trash moments, but he believed in what he was doing enough to make his statements unapologetically. To that end, Bowie never was camp. And that was the problem with the tribute. It was a moment set aside to reflect on the life and work of an artist, even whose parting gift to us was an album, and he deserved a little respect and dignity for that. But Gaga, being how she is, did not know how to not camp it up, because that’s her way of doing things. And if there’s fault to be found, it would be that a more restrained approach would have been more respectful.
Bowie was Pierrot, not Rigoletto. The performance could have used some work on shadings of expression, which Bowie mastered. If Gaga and company are guilty of anything, it is missing that distinction.”