B118: Going Gaga

28/11/2023

It’s hard to believe that it’s over 11 years ago since I went with Charlie and James to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to see the one and only Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga for her Born This Way Ball performance.

At that stage Lady Gaga had performed in Ireland before – firstly as a lowly support act to Pussycat Dolls in Dublin’s O2 arena in February 2009; at Oxegen, Co Kildare that summer; and then headline shows at the O2 later that year and in 2010 – but her appearance at the Aviva Stadium was her first major outdoor concert in Dublin. We arrived along the canal and it was amazing to see how diverse her audience were that night. A fervent fan base of teenagers had been camping out at the Aviva Stadium for the past few days in order to gain wristbands for the front-of-stage “pit” area).

James & I with the Aviva Stadium - 15 Sept 2012

Charlie walking to The Aviva - 15 Sept 2012

That particular tour was controversial and had started in April in South Korea, garnering protests from religious groups. While Gaga was raised a Roman Catholic in Manhattan, the groups deemed her persona, her music and her occasionally muddled public statements as satanic and provocatively anti-religious. All of this fuss and bother was, of course, grist to the mill for a multimedia artist who has swiftly risen through the ranks of pop music to become one of its most talked-about figures.

The Born This Way Ball show is set in and around a large medieval style castle, known as the "Kingdom of Fame" which rotates and manoeuvres throughout the show. A classical score accompanies the show's interludes, tying in with the show's dark, operatic theme.
This was the play list: