Watch Lady Gaga’s National Anthem From The Inauguration
Posted on January 21, 2021
Fans of Lady Gaga were head over heels for her performance at the BIDEN/HARRIS Inauguration
Fans deemed the event as a “Lady Gaga concert where important political figures were in attendance to swear-in a new president.”
Gaga’s fashion was extravagant and glorious as she wore a Schiaparelli couture dress with a gold dove brooch. Yes, I too was comparing it to styles seen in the Hunger Games movie, but we all know it was giant peace dove.
Singer Charlie Puth compared Gaga’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to Whitney Houston’s performance at the 1991 Super Bowl. California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted “Gaga > Maga.”
What would Gaga, in her gorgeous yet out-there Maison Schiaparelli outfit—an ensemble that, like J. Lo’s, reminded us that elegance with imagination is the best, maybe the only, kind—do with our weird but also oddly stirring national song?
The result was audacious and passionate and a little wild, as if the idea of patriotism (the true kind) had been beamed from Earth to Mars and back again, as a kind of test. Then she reached the line about Old Glory continuing to wave valiantly, having survived bloody battle and hardship—a line that should be corny, but that still stops my heart if it’s sung the right way. Just as she sang, “But our flag was still there,” she turned and, astonishingly, with a sweep of the arm straight out of Puccini or Verdi or Bizet, directed our attention to the actual flag. Her intent wasn’t just a subtext. It was a shout of jubilation and defiance. After all of this, our flag is still there! And how dare anyone even try to mess with it. Just two weeks ago, at this very site, a group of irritable, willfully misinformed self-styled militants sought to replace that flag with one emblazoned not with stars and stripes but with one man’s name. Angry at the sense that the world was moving beyond them, they had no idea that it had long ago moved past them. And now Lady Gaga sings not for them, but for us, for everybody who chooses, with fortitude and optimism, to move forward into the modern age, in our cowboy hats, our hard-won Chanel, and our shocking-raspberry ballgowns. Come as you are—but definitely come.
Applause for Gaga, as she had big shoes to fill in that prestigious position of National Anthem Inauguration singer. Who could forget the sounds of Marian Anderson or Aretha Franklin saluting our stars and stripes in front of our nation’s capitol? But Gaga’s version may become the new standard, the Whitney took ownership of the song in 2001 at the first Superbowl after the 9/11 attacks. Big difference would be that Gaga didn’t lip sync her version.
