The Super Bowl: for some it’s the event they look forward to for the sports, others the commercials, and for many, the half-time show. Lady Gaga was scheduled to perform at the 51st Super Bowl on Sunday, February 5th. After a turbulent political year, Lady Gaga reminded us all why we love America during the Super Bowl, and it’s not just because of the commercials. Lady Gaga began her performance on the roof of the NRG Stadium (which was pre-filmed) in Houston, Texas singing a medley of “God Bless America” and “This Land is Your Land” with drones lit in the background up in the shape of the continental USA behind before swan-diving down to the stage, which was also pre-filmed. After those songs, she proceeded to jump down from the roof of the stadium onto her stage, protected by wires holding her in the air.
Reminiscent of her early career, Gaga, wearing a studded blinged out bodysuit with shoulder pads and matching boots, performed a 13-minute solo act starting with “Poker Face.” She continued her performance with a medley of her greatest and most popular hits including “Born This Way,” “Telephone,” and “Just Dance.” Though many believed Beyoncé would make an appearance for “Telephone,” the singer did not appear, but Lady Gaga did adorn a gold studded bomber jacket for the song. During her performance, the audience held color changing devices that changed to the beat of the music. As her songs changed, the audience would walk around the field creating images that are only visible from a bird’s eye view with the handheld lights. Lady Gaga slowed things down to play piano and sing “Million Reasons,” while giving a quick shout out to her parents.
The finale song of Gaga’s performance was “Bad Romance,” with Lady Gage wearing hot pants that were like her bodysuit and jewel encrusted white football shoulder pads. While dancing to her songs she climbed through stairs on the set. When she reached the top at the end of her performance she threw the mic down. A jewel encrusted football was thrown to her and she promptly jumped off the stairs and disappeared ending the Super Bowl LI Halftime Show with fireworks shooting into the sky from the top of the stadium.
During her performance, there was a total of 2.2 million Tweets with the hashtag #pepsihalftime, 5.1 million tweets with the hashtag #gaga, and the words “Lady Gaga” were tweeted 2.1 million times during the span of her performance. Tweets ranged of praise and criticism. Gaga’s performance sent the message of inclusion and left out any noticeable political messages. Her outfits received criticism from people regarding her body physique which sparked controversy through the social platform. According to Canvs, “the top sentiment of these Tweets was “love”, which was reflected in 46.5% of the emotional reactions. Other top emotional reactions were “crazy” (9.5%) and “enjoy” (9.0%). Fewer viewers had negative reactions, with 6.4% of the emotional reactions reflecting “hate” and 2.8% reflecting “dislike.” Overall, it seems like Gaga had a successful performance for a historic game.