This weekend, Lady Gaga brought her "Born This Way Ball" tour to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Though many fans showed up, the show still was not sold out. There didn't seem to be the same amount of excitement around Lady Gaga's show as there was two years ago and before the show, some fans talked about how she has let her success go to her head too much. Despite the negativity, Lady Gaga's show wasn't a bust.
The inflatable vagina, the meat dress, the constant swearing, the overblown stage, and Gaga's constant pandering to the LGBT crowd could have buried Lady Gaga and her show. However, the reason all this doesn't bury Mother Monster is because unlike some other pop stars, she actually has talent.
Some of the visuals, such as when Lady Gaga turned herself into a motorcycle seat during "Heavy Metal Lover," worked. The accumulation of visuals from her career was also fun to watch during the performance of "Just Dance." However, Lady Gaga succeeded the most when she didn't try so hard.
She was obviously either lip-syncing or singing along to pre-recorded tracks for "Judas," "Bad Romance," "Poker Face," and other tracks. She definitely isn't the first pop star to do so, but it comes off as hypocritical from one who claims she sings everything live. However, nobody can accuse her of being a bad singer.
When singing "Edge of Glory" completely live from the top of the castle rafters, Mother Monster's voice shook the audience. It's not so much that she has a big vocal range; it's how she uses her voice that impresses. She impressed even more during the final performances of "Born This Way" and "Marry The Night." In fact, the piano version of "Born This Way" is so good that it makes you completely forget about the comparisons to Madonna's "Express Yourself."
So how does Gaga's "Born This Way Ball" compare to Madonna's "MDNA" Tour? Well, if you go just by the vocals, Lady Gaga is the winner here. However, she has a long way to catch up to Madonna in the performance department. Madonna's show flowed better, featured much better dancing, and was visually more fascinating. When I saw Madonna, the venue was completely packed. You couldn't help noticing the empty seats at Lady Gaga's show.
However, Lady Gaga is only 4 1/2 years into her career. Lady Gaga's performance in Las Vegas shows that this star has a lot of potential if she plays her cards right.
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