The Oscars marked the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music on Sunday by having Lady Gaga perform a medley of its signature songs.
Evidently, she shocked many people with her performance, none more so than the star of this beloved musical, Julie Andrews:
It appeared that Andrews was just as in awe of the performance as the audience was.
(Billboard, February 23, 2015)
Viewers can be forgiven their shock (and awe). After all, even when performing jazz standards with Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga seems more interested in showing off her quirky personality/fashion than her beautiful voice. Oddly enough, her offstage theatrics even affect the sound of her recorded music.
I’m not sure why people are so gaga over Lady Gaga.
Ironically, her costume-heavy act probably never looked so ‘been there, done that’ as when she came out for a somber duet with Elton John, who – as we all know – elevated the spectacle of theatrics over talent to its zenith 25 years ago.
Maybe, like Elton, she will come to realize someday that her talent alone is enough to make her superstar – cuz the girl can sing.
(“52nd Annual Grammy Awards,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2010)
Never mind reasonable suspicions that the voice we hear on her recordings is about as real as the face we see on Beyoncé’s Instagram. Which is why I cannot overstate that:
Most performers seem to think the key to success is looking and behaving in a way off stage that makes what they do on stage seem almost irrelevant: Exhibits A and B: Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj [or, for you older folks, think of all of the off-stage exhibitionism that rendered the music of artists like Grace Jones and Madonna irrelevant.]
By sterling contrast, Adele not only sings like an angel, she might just be the music industry’s saving grace. Unfortunately, this [industry has] so little to do with musical talent these days that Adele performing [on any music awards show is] rather like Andrea Bocelli performing on So You Think You Can Dance.
(“2011 MTV Video Music Awards,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 30, 2011)
Hell, in these days of Twitter and Instagram, singers seem more interested in attracting followers than in selling records. In this sense, they aspire to be more the queen of social media than the queen of pop, soul, hip-hop. (Imagine the fate of a culture that celebrates Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian above Aretha Franklin/Adele….)
In any event, it took five years, but here’s to Lady Gaga for finally having enough respect for her voice to just show up and sing. Of course, I appreciate that, for her “Little Monsters,” listening to Gaga sing like Andrews was tantamount to listening to a peacock sing like a canary.
Related commentaries:
52 Grammys…
MTV…