On October 28, 2013, Lady Gaga exited a hotel in London sporting eerily chalk-white skin, an eccentric pale dress made of flyaway ribbons, and a mess of a teased platinum mane. Just a day later, she emerged from a taping of The Graham Norton Show as an entirely different person. With her skin tone back to normal and gigantic black feathers protruding from her head, she treaded the streets of London as if they were a runway, strutting her stuff in dangerously tall shoes, billowing business pants, and a see-through shirt.
Gaga’s shtick has always relied on reinvention.
The queen of the outrageous has never worn the same outfit twice. She has coated herself in ginormous, glittery sticks to resemble a star. She has hidden her whole body under layers of white fur. She has worn a blown-up version of the Mona Lisa. She has rocked the red carpet in a dress, hat, and shoes made from slabs of actual meat. She has slipped into a frock made only of bubbles. The list goes on and on.
Her hair has changed as rapidly as her outfits have. Her ever-evolving locks have gone through a kaleidoscope of hues and styles—from spiky strands like a sea urchin’s tentacles, to a faded mix of white and gray and turquoise, to a pile of ringlets atop her head, to neon yellow tresses, to impossibly long locks grazing her thighs, to gray ropes in place of hair, to choppy and jet-black hair, to blue waves to match her painted skin.
The music that has made Mother Monster famous mirrors the fashion decisions that have made her unforgettable. She rose to fame with jarring tunes, tunes that stick with you, tunes that rely heavily on techno beats. In 2008, she released The Fame, which offered hits like “Just Dance” and “Poker Face.” The next year, she followed up with The Fame Monster, which gave the public the memorable pop ballad “Bad Romance.” Born This Way presented explosive numbers like “The Edge of Glory” and the titular track in 2011. And in 2013, Artpop asked for the “Applause” that her songs always receive.
Then something unexpected happened: Gaga reinvented herself. Again. But unlike ever before.
After years and years of a career founded upon the concept of reinvention, Gaga cooked up a new persona so bizarrely unsuited to her, so wildly un-Gaga that she managed to surprise even her most attentive fans. She stripped off the meat, simplified her style, and left the techno musical embellishments at the door. She gave up the glare and glamour of pop for the soothing, nostalgic melodies of the oldies. She returned to a simpler time, a time that makes perfect sense as the next stop on Mother Monster’s road to global domination because she so totally does not belong there.
Her unforeseen evolution began at the doorstep of Tony Bennett, a renowned jazz artist and 18-time Grammy Award winner who became famous in the 1950s for ditties like “Rags to Riches” and “Because of You.” Bennett, an 88-year-old jazz great, and Gaga, a 28-year-old pop rule-breaker, are the definition of an unlikely duo—and a smashingly successful one at that. The pair’s album, Cheek to Cheek—filled with old-timey standards including “Anything Goes,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”—debuted in the first spot on the Billboard 200 and went on to win Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards.
A playful music video for “The Lady Is a Tramp” shows Gaga adapting spectacularly well to the new role that she has given herself: She flirts charmingly with Bennett, even dancing with him when the music moves her. Her exquisitely pure voice represents a departure from the electric tunes she has recorded in years past. Though her cyan-blue hair reminds us that we are indeed looking at Gaga, she dons a lacy black gown that is far classier than most of the outlandish duds that the public is used to seeing her wear.
Gaga delivered the greatest proof of her remarkable reinvention at the 87th Annual Academy Awards on February 22, when she took to the stage to perform a medley of songs from The Sound of Music in honor of the beloved film’s 50th anniversary. When Scarlett Johansson leaned into the microphone and announced the act, the group that I was watching the show with audibly balked. Gaga is trying Julie Andrews’ songs? the crowd seemed to murmur. Who does she think she is?
Gaga was singing for a highly skeptical audience. For one of the first times since she was a newcomer in the music industry, she had to prove herself. She had her reputation to lose (remember Carrie Underwood’s widely panned turn as Maria von Trapp?) if she did not approach the majesty of Andrews in the eyes of millions of fiercely loyal Sound of Music fans across the globe.
She did not have to do this. But boy did she do it.
Gaga sang some of the most illustrious tunes ever composed—“The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss,” and “Climb Every Mountain”—with a powerful, soaring voice that rivaled the originals. Her blonde hair and lovely gown reflected the gorgeous simplicity of her voice. Her raw talent stunned my incredulous group. As the performance progressed, the previously chatty crowd fell silent in awe, and by the time Andrews walked onstage at the conclusion of the medley, there was not an un-dropped jaw in the room. When the screen legend gave her successor a hug, Gaga’s brilliant transformation seemed to be complete.
But Gaga’s reinvention represents more than just an inspired career move. By performing duets with Bennett and honoring The Sound of Music, Gaga has built an important creative bridge from the present to the past, reassuring us that the musical accomplishments of yesteryear will live on thanks to the millennial artists who breathe new life into old material. There is something beautiful and utterly delightful about watching musical legacies continue to thrive. Gaga gave all of us a gift as she reinvigorated artistic masterpieces from the past.
So when Andrews hugged Gaga at the Dolby Theater, everyone’s favorite onscreen nun was not only patting the performer on the back for a job well done and a song well sung. Rather, she was passing the torch from one generation to the next, a sign to viewers young and old that the hills will always be alive with the sound of music that we all love so dearly.
Image Credit: Flickr / Niko Transmission
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