Who's Gaga Over The Super Bowl?

I think everyone in America caught at least a part of the Super Bowl.  Even if you aren’t a football fan, you watch because of the advertisements and the halftime show.  I thought there were a few good advertisements this year – the Mr. Clean one, the Justin Bieber T-Mobile one (the boy has some moves!), and the one with Justin Timberlake and Christopher Walken where Walken recites NYSYC’s “Bye Bye Love” lyrics.  The others?  Most of them, in my opinion, were either pedestrian (boring), preachy (like we don’t get enough preaching at us all the time), or simply stupid (Gronk is a dope). 

How about the halftime show?  Hey, I’m a Lady Gaga fan.  I thought she did a great job singing the national anthem before the 2016 Super Bowl, and her halftime show on Sunday was another solid performance.  I liked the respectful nationalistic start to it, which people can and will interpret differently, but which didn’t include anything other than the songs themselves.  And I actually like a lot of Gaga’s songs, which were the focal point of the show.  The songs are so good that they even generate great cover versions – for instance, here’s Eric Cartman’s version of “Poker Face:”

And the girl has brass, right?  The illusion of jumping from the top of the stadium was cool, and she didn’t use a stunt double.  Gotta give it to her on that!  Her performance was a non-stop moving-and-singing extravaganza in high heels.  Even if she is in her 20s, it was an athletic performance for the ages.  And it being the Super Bowl, the over-the-top effects and production were proof that America is still the pop culture king of the world.  How many drones were there? 

Like most things in life, where you generally like or dislike something but have quibbles around the edges, I don’t dig everything Lady Gaga does.  And I can understand those who characterize her as being provocative just for provocative’s sake.  Clearly, she is not for everyone.  But for me, I can overlook the parts I don’t like to appreciate the artistic and pop culture vision that has made her one of the most well-known performers of the last decade.  And in a man’s man’s man’s world (still), she is an inspiration to women.  That’s all cool by me.

OK, one last thing from me.  I also liked the fact that the Super Bowl featured an American artist.  Let’s face it, American football is loved in one and only one country:  the US.  The Super Bowl is a national spectacle that binds us together as Americans over something that only Americans love.  So let’s go the jingoistic distance on this and feature artists from America – God knows we have plenty of great ones.  To me, the ultimate Super Bowl halftime show would be something like Jools Holland’s show “Later:”  a bunch of American bands of different genres set up on multiple stages around the field and they go from stage to stage allowing the band to blast through their one best song.  You know, knock ‘em dead, old school Motown style, in 2 minutes 59 seconds.  How cool would that be?  Way cool.

So here’s to Lady Gaga and a great halftime show.  Well done.  See you soon, cool cats.