Performing at the big game is a rite of passage and a major accomplishment for music superstars. When you’ve finally had the storied halftime show to yourself, you can essentially say you’ve “made it.” For Lady Gaga, that moment wouldn’t come until nearly a decade into her takeover of the pop world, but it surely would come. Now, with an upcoming performance on her hands this February at the Super Saturday Night celebration, it’s time to take a look back at all of Gaga’s Super Bowl successes.
This particular performance is another milestone for Gaga, because she’ll be helping to celebrate the event’s 10th anniversary, as it will be taking place on February 1. Super Saturday Night is a tradition that comes from a long line of celebrations AT&T and DIRECTV have promoted in the name of the Big Game for over 15 years. Fans can enjoy show-stopping concert and party to get hyped for the Super Bowl the next day.
And it’s time for Gaga’s star to shine once more. Consider that, before the last couple of years, in the nine years since releasing her breakout single “Just Dance,” Gaga had yet to perform at the Super Bowl despite all the massive successes she had enjoyed throughout the pop music landscape. That would all change in 2016, when she was finally invited to perform the National Anthem at Super Bowl 50.
Hitting the field in a shimmering red suit and slicked-back platinum suit, she belted out a beautiful rendition of the ceremonial song while clutching a bedazzled microphone. For that dazzling moment, America was able to overlook the “quirky Lady Gaga,” seeing only the powerful performer in front of them. It was a veritable pitch-perfect performance, which drew cheers from the massive crowd before she even finished the final verse.
It must have completely blown away the Super Bowl 50 organizers, however, because the very next year, Gaga was finally invited to perform her very own halftime show.
The 13-minute-long performance opened with a confident Gaga standing atop the NRG stadium in a dazzling suit belting out “God Bless America,” while accompanied by hundreds of drones that moved to form an American flag behind her.
“One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” she declared, before jumping off of a ledge into the stadium and being lowered into the stadium by two wires, dancing her way into a pit of screaming fans and performing a white-hot rendition of “Poker Face.” It was a positively explosive beginning to a performance that would combine some of her biggest hits, including “Born This Way,” “Telephone,” “Just Dance,” and “Million Reasons.”
Not only did Gaga dance and sing throughout this odyssey of her catalogue, but she played a handheld organ and even sat down at a grand piano to belt out a ballad after dancing around in the middle of a packed stadium for the nearly ten minutes before. By the time she reached her final song, “Bad Romance,” she had changed costumes into a sparkly football player’s uniform, with plenty of feminine touches.
And at the end? Gaga spit “Super Bowl LI!” into her chromed mic, dropped it, caught a football, and leapt off of the stage. The expression on her face said it all: she nailed it, and the screaming crowds agreed. The performance was met with positive critical acclaim, and even snagged six Emmy nominations, drawing 117.5 million viewers. It became the second most-watched Super Bowl halftime show following Super Bowl XLIX, which featured Katy Perry and a variety of artists, including Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott.
Now, Gaga is about to kill it again during the upcoming Super Saturday Night celebration. The megastar is headed to Miami on February 1 to celebrate the event’s 10th anniversary the night before the big game.
The big question on everyone’s minds right now is what Gaga will end up performing. It’s been four years since she released her most recent album Joanne, and she’s been teasing her sixth studio release, the as-yet-untitled “LG6,” for some time. Knowing Gaga’s past work, she’ll likely approach Super Saturday Night with the same candor and excitement that’ll knock attendees’ socks off.
Since the superstar has been spending much of her time performing at her Enigma residency in Las Vegas, it’s likely she’ll opt for several of her most recent high-energy tracks from the album Joanne, like “A Yo,” “John Wayne.” She’ll also probably throw in high-energy tracks like “Just Dance” and “Bad Romance” to please longtime fans.
But let’s be honest – whatever Gaga chooses, she’ll kill it, just like the other times. We can’t wait to see what goes down during her latest Super Bowl outing.
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