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Lady Gaga

4 lessons for Lady Gaga before her Super Bowl halftime show

Maeve McDermott
USATODAY

Bruce Springsteen’s stage slide. Prince’s white sheet. Beyonce’s bullet belt. An artist’s Super Bowl halftime performance is one of their career’s most enduring moments — which, as Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate controversy proved, isn’t always a good thing.

On Sunday, it’s Lady Gaga’s turn. Her upcoming halftime performance at Super Bowl LI bookends a year of high-profile gigs for the star, who sang the National Anthem at the 2016 Super Bowl before performances at last year’s Grammys, Oscars and Victoria's Secret Fashion show.

Gaga’s Super Bowl appearance is also the culmination of her years-long image makeover, as she’s transitioned from a costumed pop provocateur to a rock ‘n’ roll-loving, Tony Bennett-collaborating image of mainstream accessibility, trading her meat dress for a pink cowboy hat.

Lady Gaga performs at the American Music Awards in November.


Before Gaga takes the stageat NRG Stadium in Houston, these are the valuable lessons she can learn from past Super Bowl performers.

1. Keep things PG

The NFL has invited its fair share of provocateurs to the Super Bowl halftime show. Sometimes, the gamble pays off, like Prince’s suggestive-yet-electrifying 2007 performance — and in cases like Janet Jackson’s nip slip in 2004, it didn’t. Lady Gaga is no stranger to courting controversy in her live shows, like her South by Southwest appearance in 2014 where a performance artist fake-vomited on the singer throughout her set.

Gaga: SXSW vomit act was 'art in its purest form'

But in recent years, Gaga has cleaned up her act, keeping her recent TV appearances family-friendly. Artists who violate the broadcast’s decency standards risk heavy penalties, from the NFL’s $16.6 million lawsuit against M.I.A. for flipping the bird during Madonna’s 2012 set to Jackson’s FCC controversy and damaged public image. Gaga would be wise to extend her clean streak into her Super Bowl show.

2. Tread carefully with politics

If Lady Gaga wants to incite riots with her performance, she can learn something from Beyoncé, who courted controversy by performing her political anthem Formation last year, backed by dancers in Black Panther-referencing costumes. The NFL has already debunked rumors that they pre-emptively forbade Gaga from making political statements during her set, so it's a mystery whether the Democratic-supporting star will use her platform to speak out against President Trump.

Gaga would be best suited to avoid empty gestures like M.I.A.’s middle finger, which cost the singer a lot of money and controversy for an ineffective protest. And for a more inclusive message, she might look to U2’s 2002 performance. With the nation still reeling from the 9/11 attacks, the band sang Where the Streets Have No Name in front of a scrolling backdrop remembering the names of the victims, with Bono ending the song by opening his jacket to reveal an American flag.

Bono, lead singer of U2, displays an American flag lining in his jacket after singing 'Where The Streets Have No Name,' during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.

3. Pick a relevant guest

Super Bowl performers often invite guests to join them, whether to incorporate a different genre of music or make the show more memorable. But the wrong cameo can sink an artist’s set.

2001’s star-studded lineup of Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Nelly, Mary J. Blige and 'N Sync inspired too many celebrity-clogged performances in the following years, like 2003’s Shania Twain/No Doubt/Sting lineup, or Madonna’s cameo-filled 2012 show with LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and Cee-Lo Green. Sometimes, the guest star feels laughably random, like the Black Eyed Peas inviting Slash onstage in 2011, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ cameo in Bruno Mars’ 2014 set. And Coldplay became an afterthought at their own performance after they invited the far-buzzier Beyoncé to join them last year.

Review: Beyonce upstages Coldplay in Super Bowl halftime show

The best guest appearances of recent halftime shows have largely played on an element of surprise. Beyoncé threw a Destiny’s Child reunion in 2013, inviting bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams onstage, and Katy Perry’s 2015 performance featured a welcome appearance from the previously-reclusive Missy Elliott.

In her recent live shows, Gaga's pop hits have undergone guitar-heavy makeovers. Inviting a classic rock icon to back her onstage would complement her performance — as long as it’s not her recent collaborator Tony Bennett, as rumors suggest, a low-energy fit for the historically high-drama occasion.

4. Sometimes, simple works best

Many of the past decade's best halftime shows have focused less on filling the stage with cameos, and more on the performances themselves.

Inventive staging can make all the difference, from U2’s evocative backdrop to Prince’s iconic white sheet. And as Bruce Springsteen proved with his 2009 set, a successful halftime show can be as simple as a world-class band, a dynamic vocalist and a well-placed stage camera.

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