I loved her performance, but there's something inherently disappointing

[PeterPan 0]

36 minutes ago, MiddleZone said:

I absolutely loved the show last night! Her vocals were flawless, and it felt like such a huge event. She slayed it.

However, I'm not too happy about the setlist. It felt too retrospective to the very early years of her career. I find it odd that all of the songs bar Million Reasons (which has already been promoted the **** out of) came from the first three years of career.

It kind of just feels like she reinforced the idea/perception that LG is past her peak/not mainstream anymore? She's trying to move forward, and she seemed to kind of stay true to the 'stripped back' feel last night, but all this felt like was that she was watering down her former aesthetics if you know what I mean?

Personally I'd have loved to have seen TEOG, Applause and PI! Telephone was definitely unnecessary.

Disclaimer: I am NOT slamming the performance! She was fantastic. Just thinking about the idea of it.

Yes but this is the moment she has been waiting for her entire life.  I feel we should respect her choices.  I am not upset by the setlist at all and the face she did Telephone without Beyonce is amazing.  Shows she doesnt need guests to ROCK a show.  The GP was pleasantly surprised and loved it.  Fans are over the moon happy and some of the iconic moments.

[PeterPan 0]

8 minutes ago, Uncle ARTPOP said:

I think doing telephone alone was BRAAAAAAVE.

That slot very easily coulda been PI or the next single or hell even A-YO, I lived for it and was scalped clean bald. It just felt weird for there to be a televised performance of Telephone without Bey, so I wish that was swapped with like applause or something cause that song was a moderate hit.

Not a complaint just a place where people could have been let down, say what if bey never announced her pregnancy. Then suddenly telephone ends and no Bey, even tho she is perfectly healthy?

Telephone felt like an unnecessary hit to include.

I thought the blending from BTW to Telephone was perfect

[Dominic 11,922]

The setlist was probably my only issue but it's a very very small one. Maybe switch JD for TEOG as we had quite a few from TF/TFM. 

Either way I aren't gonna complain. I'm normally very critical towards Gaga but she shut even me up this time.  

[ATRL 14]

You need to remember Gaga performed in front of the entire world, not just for her fans. She managed to fit LoveGame, Paparazzi and The Edge of Glory in the intro, and even included Dance In the Dark for the fans. 

When you're performing on such a huge stage it wouldn't make sense to sing unknown songs. It's about putting on the most entertaining performance in 13 minutes. For the performance to be entertaining, the music needs to be entertaining. Poker Face, Born This Way, Just Dance, Telephone and Bad Romance are literally her biggest hits. She was smart to look at her best-selling singles and perform them. She hates Telephone but gave it the time of day because she's aware of how successful it was and knows everybody loves it. You can't have Bad Romance without Telephone. One one hand you have "rah rah ra-a-a", on the other you have the sandwich dance, and both are quintessentially Lady Gaga.

 

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,711]

I totes know what u mean. I also missed ARTPOP. I would trade telephone for applause like anytime.

but at the end of the day the whole thing kicked ass and that's what matters.

[Allison M 357]

She was singing to an audience that would only really know her older hits. So she just performed sings she knew everyone would know. I wish she would have done The Edge of Glory or Applause instead of Telephone though

[Phlop 4,773]

Telephone and even JD could've been replaced with TEOG (the fact that it's higher than Telephone on iTunes and it wasn't even performed) and Applause (it was a good radio hit and would've given attention to ARTPOP). I kinda was hoping she'd do AYO since it would've pushed Joanne up the roof but probably take away from MR.

She did amazing and I'm just glad she did BTW to be honest.

[Sepsami 18,843]

I understand your point but I believe this was the smartest thing to do, she's connecting to the GP at the biggest music event of the year by playing the music they know. Playing Million Reasons allowed her to sneak in a current song, MR and BR were played a lot longer than the other songs. It was the smart thing to do.

[StrawberryBlond 14,848]

I get what you're saying and agree with parts. I too, wish she had performed TEOG, that was the only proper disappointment of the night for me (the fact my dad wished she'd sung it is proof that the public do remember and love this song) and I also thought Telephone was a bit unnecessary (and I'm not keen on that song anyway) but at the end of the day, the SB is about putting on a show of your biggest hits more than anything. For example, when Katy did it, every single song that she sang was a US #1 (not including the Missy part). This was very smart. She knows that the audience will be behind a proven hit. Songs like, say, Applause, really are lost on a vast amount of the public even though it went top ten and had half decent sales. I mean, some Australians still don't know to this day that AP even exists. You can't compare Applause's impact with Telephone's impact, regardless of whether you love the song or not. The NFL likely demanded a hit medley and she gave them it. She needed to remind the public how awesome she is and why they loved her so much once and she's not going to do that by singing lesser known songs and never-performed-before material.

3 hours ago, Harry said:

That being said, I do think Applause could've slotted in there nicely. But time constraints etc. 

Yeah, a teeny snippet would have made 100% sense, all things considered. If she could play a quick mash-up of some other songs while she was floating down, a quick burst of "I live for the applause!" would have been a nice little bit of extra promo for a somewhat forgotten song. But I would've much preferred a bit of TEOG, even if it was just a snippet when she was on the roof. A bit of unfair teasing happened when she landed and shouted "I'm on the edge!" but just went into Pokerface even so. I get her 'heal America' opening and it was lovely but ultimately unnecessary. You're on a roof and you don't sing TEOG? That's like Katy choosing not to sing Firework while jetting around on a giant sparkler. I know, it's too predictable and yada yada but I'm one of those people who believes "the more obvious the reference, the more it has to be addressed."

3 hours ago, Uncle ARTPOP said:

I think doing telephone alone was BRAAAAAAVE.

That slot very easily coulda been PI or the next single or hell even A-YO, I lived for it and was scalped clean bald. It just felt weird for there to be a televised performance of Telephone without Bey, so I wish that was swapped with like applause or something cause that song was a moderate hit.

Not a complaint just a place where people could have been let down, say what if bey never announced her pregnancy. Then suddenly telephone ends and no Bey, even tho she is perfectly healthy?

Telephone felt like an unnecessary hit to include.

I agree, seeing Gaga do Telephone solo, shortened or not, is a big deal and people are going to be reminded of Beyonce...but then they see that Gaga effortlessly slayed it on her own so a guest wasn't needed. Beyonce's verse is unnecessary anyway, something so short didn't need a feature, that was totally added purely to bolster public interest. So Telephone without Beyonce made perfect sense to me. But yeah, the fact that Beyonce couldn't be there because of preganancy at least lays rest to any "she didn't want to perform with a flop" rumours from circulating.

2 hours ago, Gov Hooka said:

As a Michael Jackson fan, to this day I'm still pressed that he didn't sing Beat It, Bad, Thriller, Man in the Mirror, or Smooth Criminal but he sang songs like Jam and Heal the World... Honestly we should be happy that we can look back at this performance and hear Gagas biggest hits. This is her most enduring legacy. The fact is more people know Telephone than Applause and TEOG. 

That's what I've been saying. I've yet to see a 100% flawless SB setlist, Gaga included. Partly because the majority of singles released are never my favourites but rather the ones that the public will like. But singing the hits is necessary if you want to become an icon, a legend and ensure that people keep on coming back to your live shows. Some people just go to some artists concerts just to hear the hits even though they don't even own their albums. Gaga reminded us what made her famous, proved that she had more than one or two hits, proved she has had iconic moments and changed some things in pop music. And if that means a medley of lesser-favourite hits, so be it.

[BornAsUnic0rn 2,095]

3 hours ago, Gypsygaga1 said:

Let it go.That performance was AMAZING.It feels like Monsters always need to complain about something

Pre-SB; Please Gaga, only perform the hits. We want FameGa back. Kill Joanne please.

Post-SB: Gaga sadly only performed her hits. She made it look like she had her peak 2009-2010. POOR ARTPOP, POOR JOANNE.  

[Titan 632]

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[Sirius094 2,248]

This was the superbowl, get over it. The GP doesn't even know what she did after Applause (and I'm sure they barely know this song)

[nakedidea 745]

yall complaining but it's the #1 song on iTunes and also #12

[bliaz 897]

I loved it, but when I heard Telephone I was like   I missed TEOG 

[Gagz 2,579]

The inclusion of Telephone still feels weird to me, and the exclusion of PI is still surprising. I would've liked Applause, but I get why it wasn't chosen.