Lady Gaga did not deliver the middle finger to Trump that was semi-expected at her Super Bowl halftime performance, but she did sing gay rights anthem “Born This Way” in front of a country whose rights seem to be receding by the moment. She also sung it in front of Vice President Mike Pence, who was there.
Gaga’s David Bowie-inspired set began with a rendition of “This Land Is Your Land,” after which she descended from the roof and lunged around Houston’s NRG Stadium in a spangly metallic Versace leotard, performing a variety of older hits like “Pokerface” and “Bad Romance.” In the middle of “A Million Reasons,” a ballad from Gaga’s latest album, she hugged an unidentified young Latina woman while singing the lyrics “please stay” in a move that surely offended red hat-wearing snowflakes across this great land.
There were a bunch of drones, too.