Variety: Olympics choreographer on working with Gaga; performance almost called off

[LastNight 4,508]

Lady Gaga’s dazzling performance of Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc en Plumes” (“My Thing With Feathers”) set the irreverent tone of the Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday night. But it nearly got called off due to the rain, says Maud le Pladec, the choreographer of all Olympics and Paralympics ceremonies who worked with Gaga for many months.

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“Unfortunately, it was the only [performance] that, for safety reasons, we had to pre-record late in the afternoon, once we knew for sure that it was going to rain — we had minute-by-minute updates, we had never watched the weather forecast so closely in our lives… We assessed that it was going to be too dangerous for performers, even with a few drops of rain. [Gaga] wanted to do it absolutely so we preferred to pre-record it rather than cancel it,” she says.

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The choreographer says Gaga, who she described as a workhorse and a perfectionist, worked until the last moments on her vocals and legwork. She also trained for weeks in Los Angeles with several dancers who flew in from Paris. “She wanted to make a show à la Française. She puts so much effort and thought into everything she does and she has a very developed creative process.”

Full Variety article here. 

Edited 2 hours ago by LastNight

[Schizophonic 5,704]

so they work on 3 more performances tied to the olympics... i guess closing ceremony and paralympics opening and closing. the fact that Gaga is still in paris could mean her involvement in them as well. 

 

like rihanna and coldplay did too.

[EvilBunny 590]

Imagine the meltdowns if the performance was cancelled last minute  Lady Gaga and cancellations walk hand in hand unfortunately 

[LastNight 4,508]

Love how committed Gaga is! Seems like she put so much effort into the performance and of course she wanted to go on with the show - she’s such a pro.

Glad they were able to find a way to do it 

Edited 2 hours ago by LastNight

[Red 89,855]

Don’t. Rain. On. Me. 

[MOT 2,247]

So this was the special project she was working on. Or am I way too late with this and it's already been discussed to death.

[calmar 21,918]

14 minutes ago, LastNight said:

The choreographer says Gaga, who she described as a workhorse and a perfectionist, worked until the last moments on her vocals and legwork.”

But the pronunciation...

[palma 5,612]

20 minutes ago, Schizophonic said:

so they work on 3 more performances tied to the olympics... i guess closing ceremony and paralympics opening and closing. the fact that Gaga is still in paris could mean her involvement in them as well. 

 

like rihanna and coldplay did too.

The article says La Pladec works on 3 more ceremonies for the Olympics though... Gaga could be there to watch the games for all we know 

Edited 1 hour ago by palma

[NATAH 35,560]

6 minutes ago, MOT said:

So this was the special project she was working on. Or am I way too late with this and it's already been discussed to death.

"I wrote and produced music for a special project"

since this was a cover, no

[elijahfan 24,073]

6 minutes ago, calmar said:

But the pronunciation...

Are you a francophone? Because her French is actually more than decent. Not sure a lot of fellow American singers could've pulled off what she did (Beyoncé's "Les choristes" Oscars performance comes to mind... we still get laughs about it to this day in France).

[elijahfan 24,073]

More on topic, I had friends who have been able to attend the performance in person and it was indeed prerecorded around 2 hours before the actual ceremony started. They did the performance around 4 times in a row, which is where all the leaked videos we got that day came from. Back then we thought they were just rehearsing, but it was actually them recording. By the time the ceremony began, she was long gone and the stage was covered.

[NATAH 35,560]

i hope those that said the performance was bad cus it was pre-recorded feel bad

[Gaby15 8,362]

11 minutes ago, elijahfan said:

More on topic, I had friends who have been able to attend the performance in person and it was indeed prerecorded around 2 hours before the actual ceremony started. They did the performance around 4 times in a row, which is where all the leaked videos we got that day came from. Back then we thought they were just rehearsing, but it was actually them recording. By the time the ceremony began, she was long gone and the stage was covered.

A dancer even fell during the pre-recorded show, so the stairs/platform was probably basically slippery. I'd rather not know what would have happened if they tried it live in the rain.

[MOT 2,247]

17 minutes ago, NATAH said:

"I wrote and produced music for a special project"

since this was a cover, no

Drat.

[elijahfan 24,073]

3 minutes ago, Gaby15 said:

A dancer even fell during the pre-recorded show, so the stairs/platform was probably basically slippery. I'd rather not know what would have happened if they tried it live in the rain.

Indeed, with those stairs it would've been impossible. Not to mention the feathers would have looked like ****. I'm actually impressed the rain didn't affect more elements of the show, they apparently had to cut very little.

Like, I'm shocked nobody got hurt during the runway segment.

Edited 1 hour ago by elijahfan