Honest opinion of Gaga's VMA performance

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

Now that I've woken up and rewatched the performance, there's a few things that have been on my mind.

Overall, the whole performance was incredible. The set, the costumes, the vocals, the choreography. It was amazing. 

However... 911 sounded really bad live. The song is pretty monotonous and has a robotic feel to it. But when Gaga did it live... it just sounded kind of... off. I feel like this performance would have been better with a vocoder or something to give the robotic feel. Also it didn't match the choreography. It made the song sound even worse than what it actually is. Its a good album track, but live? Not so much

Thats really my only negative. The only other thing was that it appeared that there was some autotune on Gaga's vocals during Rain On Me. We know Gaga can hit the notes, so why was it there? 

Other than that, the Rain On Me performance was incredible. The vocals were amazing, Ariana blew everyone away with her whistles notes   The choreography was great, but those hand things during the bridge was a bit cringey. I do feel like Ariana sounded better live, only because of the autotune on Gaga's vocals... but both of them sounded amazing. And Gaga really did bring it.

The Stupid Love performance was one of my favourites out the three, probably is my favourite. The piano intro with the incredible vocals to start with, and important message about keeping safe and wearing your face masks, and then into the dancing and stuff. It really highlighted how fun Stupid Love is. And I genuinely think that this night in particular really showed how amazing Gaga's vocals are, and how diverse her vocals are. 

I really loved the whole thing, Rain On Me and Stupid Love left me so shook. And the general concept of the performance was incredible. To think our first performances of the Chromatica era would be like this... I'm in awe  

[Red 97,489]

While I don't think the 911 was perfect, I thought it would sound worse live tbh 

[ballerios 569]

you're totally right about 911 .. i'm shocked why gaga is not using any vocoder or even why performing this song when you have other vocal demanding songs in chromatica :")

[REALITY 75,469]

I agree with you about 911. I just don't think the song translates well live, at least for that particular performance it didn't. I liked the choreo and of course the transition from Chromatica II was great, but I just don't think she sounded good. I've watched the performance now more than a dozen times (), and I will say with each consecutive watch, it does sound better, but you also shouldn't need to watch a performance a dozen times to be like, "Well okay, it doesn't sound that bad."

Her vocals on 911 were literally my only problem though. ROM and SL were much better and overall the sets, the choreo, the looks, etc. were all amazing and fantastic. I lowkey wished she picked a different song mainly because I'm not the biggest fan of 911 anyway, but also because I think having a song that showcases her vocals more would've been a better start to the performance. 

Again though, before anyone quotes me, I absolutely loved her performance. She without a doubt stole the show and she deserves all the success she got from last night.

[Putang Ina Mo 2,118]

My only comments are Rain on Me sounded a bit faster than the studio version.

And she sounded like she has difficulty breathing since she sounded like she's catching her breath especially during Stupid Love.

 

 

Or maybe it was just me. Nothing negative. 

[Magui 2,625]

I always liked Stupid Love, and I will go wild when I see I and listening live so help me God 🙏

 I'm still grinning and rewatching 

[President Biden 5,898]

Masks were annoying and tacky imo

 

 

everything else served and was easily her best performance since the BTW era

[My Name Isnt Alice 3,737]

This performance made me love stupid love tbh but 

[Twitter 14]

20 minutes ago, Red said:

While I don't think the 911 was perfect, I thought it would sound worse live tbh 

 

18 minutes ago, pillos said:

you're totally right about 911 .. i'm shocked why gaga is not using any vocoder or even why performing this song when you have other vocal demanding songs in chromatica :")

 

15 minutes ago, M Monstre said:

I agree with you about 911. I just don't think the song translates well live, at least for that particular performance it didn't. 

Thanks @xoxo Craig for acknowledging this. Everyone knows I dislike 911 and I was hopeful a live performance of the song would boost my liking. 911 part was very meh to me. Plus the choreo was too sexy and Telephone-esque for a song talks about medication. It again, goes back to another element why I dislike the song. 

If anything, I love Stupid Love since Feb 28th and I think a live performance of it is getting more people to like the song. 

[Fanta 5,019]

I loved the outfit changes, the idea of her coming out of ‘quarantine’ to perform, sliding down the pole and her vocals during ROM were phenomenal.

On the other hand, I do agree with the 911 criticism and I also feel like the production could have looked more professional. Honestly I say this because I’m comparing it to some of the other performances and they looked expensive and impeccably put. I feel like had the set and production been better it would have elevated the performance into a whole ‘nother level. Doja’s performance is literally what I thought Gaga would pull off.

[Guest Adarsh]

It was the best VMA performance in a long time.

[dollardays 3,646]

6 minutes ago, Fanta said:

I loved the outfit changes, the idea of her coming out of ‘quarantine’ to perform, sliding down the pole and her vocals during ROM were phenomenal.

On the other hand, I do agree with the 911 criticism and I also feel like the production could have looked more professional. Honestly I say this because I’m comparing it to some of the other performances and they looked expensive and impeccably put. I feel like had the set and production been better it would have elevated the performance into a whole ‘nother level. Doja’s performance is literally what I thought Gaga would pull off.

This is exactly my only criticism. But she still delivered 

[KingRedd 3,139]

41 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Now that I've woken up and rewatched the performance, there's a few things that have been on my mind.

Overall, the whole performance was incredible. The set, the costumes, the vocals, the choreography. It was amazing. 

However... 911 sounded really bad live. The song is pretty monotonous and has a robotic feel to it. But when Gaga did it live... it just sounded kind of... off. I feel like this performance would have been better with a vocoder or something to give the robotic feel. Also it didn't match the choreography. It made the song sound even worse than what it actually is. Its a good album track, but live? Not so much

Thats really my only negative. The only other thing was that it appeared that there was some autotune on Gaga's vocals during Rain On Me. We know Gaga can hit the notes, so why was it there? 

Other than that, the Rain On Me performance was incredible. The vocals were amazing, Ariana blew everyone away with her whistles notes   The choreography was great, but those hand things during the bridge was a bit cringey. I do feel like Ariana sounded better live, only because of the autotune on Gaga's vocals... but both of them sounded amazing. And Gaga really did bring it.

The Stupid Love performance was one of my favourites out the three, probably is my favourite. The piano intro with the incredible vocals to start with, and important message about keeping safe and wearing your face masks, and then into the dancing and stuff. It really highlighted how fun Stupid Love is. And I genuinely think that this night in particular really showed how amazing Gaga's vocals are, and how diverse her vocals are. 

I really loved the whole thing, Rain On Me and Stupid Love left me so shook. And the general concept of the performance was incredible. To think our first performances of the Chromatica era would be like this... I'm in awe  

I agree. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that felt 9/11 was off. Maybe if she incorporates more bass to that performance? The vocoder would’ve helped drastically. I see 9/11 as the Heavy Metal Lover of Chromatica. Bass has to boom. 
 

I lowkey would like for her to hit the choreography a little more precise. Sometimes she gets so hype it looks like she’s trying to keep up. That’s just Gaga I guess lmao she never can control herself she always lets loose. 

[REALITY 75,469]

14 minutes ago, Twitter said:

Thanks @xoxo Craig for acknowledging this. Everyone knows I dislike 911 and I was hopeful a live performance of the song would boost my liking. 911 part was very meh to me. Plus the choreo was too sexy and Telephone-esque for a song talks about medication. It again, goes back to another element why I dislike the song. 

If anything, I love Stupid Love since Feb 28th and I think a live performance of it is getting more people to like the song. 

I thought the choreo was fine, but yeah, 911 definitely wasn't the best part of the performance.

[Spock 20,290]

I thought it was incredible and it just made me that much sadder for the Chromatica Ball  hair, makeup, costumes, everything was perfect and loved how it was like a mini concert. I really hope Ariana will turn up at a Chromatica show because seeing them together was so iconic.

However, I will say that the Stupid Love performance on the piano (which was the highlight for me) was proof that she could have done a quick and simple at home performance months ago, without having a huge production, and it would have been great. But that's another discussion