Super Bowl 51 may be in the books, but it’s still a popular conversation topic. The game itself made records, although it wasn’t as big of a ratings hit as expected, the commercials were mostly lackluster with a few exceptions, and Lady Gaga nailed her halftime performance. 117.5 million viewers worldwide saw the 30-year-old singer perform a medley of some of her greatest hits, after seemingly leaping into the center of Houston’s NRG Stadium from the structure’s roof. Well, it has come to light that a little Hollywood magic was used to create the breathtaking entrance.
The opening of Gaga’s performance utilized 300 drones, creating a patriotic backdrop as she sang excerpts of “God Bless America” and “This Land is Your Land.” After that, Gaga took a leap into the stadium (which has a retractable ceiling) and launched into her repertoire of hits. According to Intel’s Natalie Cheung, the woman responsible for choreographing the drones’ performance, the segment was pre-recorded on January 30th, and there’s a valid reason for that:
“So there’s a lot of weather and environment (issues),” Cheung said. “In February, you don’t know what it will be like during Super Bowl day. We’d hate to plan all this and, if the wind speeds are too high or if it’s raining and the roof is closed, no one can see this spectacular show. So our creative team as well as the Super Bowl creative team felt this would be best to be filmed. Lady Gaga also was on the roof when this was filmed, and from a logistics and creative perspective, it’s a bit hard for her to go from the roof all the way down to the floor of the stadium.”
Video taken from the crowd perspective showed the pre-taped segment and Gaga coming down from pretty high up in the stadium. Note that the retractable roof on the stadium is closed.
LADY. GAGA.#SuperBowl #LadyGaga #PepsiHalftime pic.twitter.com/VKwvCIZpu5
— NFL Brasil (@NFLBrasil) February 6, 2017
Hey, she was pretty high up there. It’s admirable that she had the guts to do it, as I sure wouldn’t. Of course, haters were quick to accuse Gaga of stealing Pink’s act. And, proving she’s still a class act, Pink took to Instagram to give props to Gaga for her performance. In her post, she said, “Who cares if I flew first? Cause I didn’t! Cirque and Peter Pan been in the air for years!”
Love you, Pink. My only complaint is if she was able to pre-record the jump, why did she look so awkward doing it? I guess I wouldn’t want to do a second take either, and hey, if nothing else, the moment made for some hilarious memes.
Since the NFL spared no expense in putting together this extravaganza, you can only assume that Gaga wasn’t staying at the Motel 6 in Houston during the rehearsals and festivities. Quite the contrary. The singer chilled at a lavish $20 million mansion located a few miles from the stadium. The five bedroom, 10,000 square foot home, called Villa Encantado, boasts amenities fit for a celebrity, including a gym, sauna, movie theater, indoor game room, bocce court, pool and jacuzzi. If you want to live like Gaga, you can rent the home through Airbnb for a mere $10,000 per night (with a seven night stay minimum).
It may be just my opinion, but Gaga deserved the royal treatment, her performance was spectacular and managed to have a positive message. Although she had been told by the NFL to leave politics out of her performance, Gaga assured her fans during a pre-game press conference that she would remain true to her values:
“The only statements that I’ll be making during the halftime show are the ones that I’ve been consistently making throughout my career. I believe in a passion for inclusion. I believe in the spirit of equality, and that the spirit of this country is one of love and compassion and kindness. My performance will uphold those philosophies.”
Being a woman of her word, Gaga delivered on her promise, including a message of tolerance and acceptance for the LBGTQ community with the lyrics from her hit “Born This Way.” She used her moment in the worldwide spotlight to sing, “No matter gay, straight, or bi / Lesbian, transgendered life / I’m on the right track baby / I was born to survive.” Well played, Gaga. Well played. It was sure a great way to promote her upcoming Joanne tour, which kicks off on August 1 in Vancouver.
And now for the most important Gaga news – for me, at least – it’s official, Mama Monster will be the special guest judge on the Super Bowl for drag performers, RuPaul’s Drag Race! Gaga has had a long relationship with RuPaul and her girls, filming the lyric video for 2013’s “Applause” at a famed West Hollywood drag bar. The video featured Drag Race faves Raven, Detox, Shangela, Shannel and Morgan McMichaels. Gaga’s always wanted to be a judge and when she asked Ru if she could be a part of the show, Ru naturally responded “Yes!”
YES! RT: @ladygaga: Can I PLEASE be a judge on drag race! @RuPaul I started out in these club, these women taught me how to serve! pic.twitter.com/qEm3RbH6Bn
— RuPaul (@RuPaul) February 7, 2017
Gaga will lend her ability to judge the queens’ charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent on the season 9 premiere of the show, coming later in 2017. She shared the news on Twitter on Tuesday, with a short clip and the announcement, “The time has come! I’m joining the girls on the season premiere of @RuPaulsDragRace! #DontBeADrag #JustBeAQueen.”
The time has come! I'm joining the girls on the season premiere of @RuPaulsDragRace! #DontBeADrag #JustBeAQueen 👑 pic.twitter.com/XzKcKapsgw
— xoxo, Joanne (@ladygaga) February 7, 2017
I am beyond excited about this. Ru’s had some great judges, but this is going to be epic. 2017 is already proving to be quite the banner year for Gaga and I’m excited to see what’s next for her.
Photo credit: WENN.com, Getty Images
I saw some pics of the mansion she stayed in – I wish I were rich lol it’s really beautiful.
She was also like a puppet with strings, just like our resident Lord Dampnuts. Lol.
Lol. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought she looked like a scared frog coming down.
I thought she looked like a freaked out spider. lol
Props to her for doing it, though.
When they cut away from hey on top to her coming down it was pretty obvious it was 2 different occasions. At least to me, so I’m not surprised at all. She did a great job, end of.
I thought so too, still a great performance
Yeah I thought it was obvious too and I’m really surprised that it’s turned into a conversation and some people thought they would actually let her jump off the roof! It reminded me of the opening of the London olympics. He performance was fab though end of story.
I don’t understand the criticism of the jump not being live. Pre-recordings isn’t unusual for certain stunts because of logistics. Besides Gaga did the actual jump and did a significant leap live. It wasn’t as if she used stunt double.
Right! She did her own singing, the main reason she was chosen…
Don’t understand the criticism at all. It had to be filmed for safety reasons. As stated in the above article, no one can predict February weather. I would never have had the guts to make that leap, pre-filmed or not. It was still a leap.
That performance is something I will remember for the rest of my life.
I thought it was all faked like James Bond parachuting with the queen at the olympics. She really jumped from the roof, just on a different day?! D*MN, you go girl! Loved her performance.
Right. Some people might be shocked by your “revelation”! You just destroid their idea of the actual Queen Lizzy the II. jumping off a helicopter 😉
I, for my part, totally missed that the “stars” at Lady Gagas performance were drones. I thaught those were Special FX anyway, just digital backdrop in a studio. Still a cool performance!
very excited for season 9 of drag race. its the best reality show out there imo.
So exciting! When is Drag Race back on? None of the articles say the actual premier date, and if it’s in the video I can’t watch where I am now.
Yah, seemed obvious to me watching it and especially so if you consider the constraints for filming and having to be prepared for adverse weather conditions etc.
Still amazing and nerve wracking to come down on a wire just before a performance – and if it were me, catching the football at the end would of been stressful enough!
I wish my career jump was pre recoded.
I’m not giving her shit for this. She deals with chronic pain and STILL did the jump even if it was pre-recorded. It takes guts to do that to begin with, so I’m genuinely impressed.
For all of those it was inclusive .. except if you have a disability. Same for the Womens March.
The Women’s March in Boston had a special accessible area near the stage. I sat there with my 88 year old great aunt who was using a wheelchair and there were at least a hundred other mobility-impaired women in that area with us. The speeches were also signed.
I mean, it’s fine. Her safety was involved and, after all, she did perform 100% live. The drone show was amazing, and I loved how matter-of-factly she delivered the little speech before jumping.
Good for Gaga and Pink- esp Pink’s credit to Cirque. Back when flying overhead on wires first took off at arena style shows, friends attended a George Jones concert. He said something along the lines of “if you paid $$ expecting to see me fly through the air, go ask for your $$ back right now.”- got a big laugh from the audience. I can’t imagine ever launching myself into space like she did-yikes! Of course it was pre-recorded!!
I also heard that the drones had to be pre-recorded because of the “no fly zone” around the stadium. I’m impressed even if it was pre-recorded.
Corey I don’t know why but your Motel 6 comment made me cackle hysterically. Thank you for the laugh!
And count me in as Team Gaga. Love her, always have, no matter what!
In addition to Social Media critiquing her pre-recorded jump, there were also many douche canoes body shaming her that she looked pudgy.
This is what I detest social media for. The constant bullying and shaming crap that goes on.
I have loved Stephani Germanotta from the start and will to the end. If folks are just catching on right now that she really is a true and talented Artist, well shame on them.
She has a much better singing voice than Madonna ever did or will and some of her dancing mimics Madge as she herself has said Madonna has always been one of her earliest inspirations.
Sick of the haters.
Gaga slayed and will do so as a Judge also on Drag Queens.
I know people think her crazy outfits are try hard – but I love them and I’ve missed them in these past two eras (Cheek to Cheek & Joanne). I can not wait to see her pull out all the stops for a group that will appreciate it!
She was AMAZING