By Natasha Julius
I know, I know. I’m late with this year’s Super Bowl bet. What can I say? My ability to excoriate pop culture figures has been dulled by the ascendance of a gigantic man-baby. But enough about my home life; neither the second round of motherhood nor the president’s second childhood is really the issue here. The issue is, Lady Gaga is largely immune to mockery.
Sure, there’s plenty of standard cracks concerning her originality and general thirst. But you can’t fault the woman’s enthusiasm or endurance; she’s logged respectable work in genres as varied as dance pop, jazz and alt-country. And she’s done it all with a kind of aggressive vulnerability that might not be visionary but is certainly sincere. She’s invested in both her music and her messaging in a way that a lot of pop stars simply aren’t, and that’s weirdly compelling.
Plus, she’s a great showman. Consider that, the NFL’s brief flirtation with Adele aside, Gaga likely punched her ticket for this gig when she belted out the Star-Spangled Banner at last year’s Super Bowl and completely overshadowed Chris Martin’s mewling, Bruno Mars’s garbage bag suit and at least half of Beyonce’s backup dancers.
Posted on February 2, 2017