When it was first announced that Lady Gaga would perform the much-anticipated David Bowie tribute at this year’s Grammy Awards, some naysayers protested that the 29-year-old pop star (while clearly a fan, as evidenced by the Aladdin Sane lightning-bolt war paint she used to wear in her “Just Dance” days, but not one of Bowie’s peers) just wasn’t the woman for such a daunting job. Talk about being under pressure.
But when she took the Staples Center stage Monday night, Lady Gaga transformed into Lady Stardust, and she pulled it off perfectly. Bowie himself — a man who in the later years of his career worked with younger artists like Trent Reznor and Arcade Fire, and always defied genre expectations — probably would have loved it.
Joined by Bowie’s longtime collaborator and Let’s Dance producer Nile Rodgers, who served as musical director for the extravaganza, Gaga first appeared in extreme close-up, special-effects technology painting Bowie-makeup graphics across her shadowed face. Then she emerged, resplendent in a flame-orange Ziggy wig and a kimono-style cape like the one Kansai Yamamoto designed for Bowie’s early-’70s Ziggy Stardust Tour. Shortly afterwards, Gaga flung off that cape to reveal a sharp-shouldered white glam jumpsuit and feather boa, and she tore through nine Bowie classics from the icon’s golden years, chronologically ordered from 1969’s “Space Oddity” through 1983’s “Let’s Dance.”
But when she took the Staples Center stage Monday night, Lady Gaga transformed into Lady Stardust, and she pulled it off perfectly. Bowie himself — a man who in the later years of his career worked with younger artists like Trent Reznor and Arcade Fire, and always defied genre expectations — probably would have loved it.
Joined by Bowie’s longtime collaborator and Let’s Dance producer Nile Rodgers, who served as musical director for the extravaganza, Gaga first appeared in extreme close-up, special-effects technology painting Bowie-makeup graphics across her shadowed face. Then she emerged, resplendent in a flame-orange Ziggy wig and a kimono-style cape like the one Kansai Yamamoto designed for Bowie’s early-’70s Ziggy Stardust Tour. Shortly afterwards, Gaga flung off that cape to reveal a sharp-shouldered white glam jumpsuit and feather boa, and she tore through nine Bowie classics from the icon’s golden years, chronologically ordered from 1969’s “Space Oddity” through 1983’s “Let’s Dance.”
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