Lady Gaga’s Tour of Inclusion

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Lady Gaga released her most personal album to date last year, “Joanne,” and just got around to touring a couple of weeks ago at Scottrade after a daring performance at the last Super Bowl. One thing’s for sure: Only she can make such a huge venue seem like an intimate setting with her poise and her powerful music.

The album dived into the reality of Lady Gaga: her chronic pain that is expanded visually with the Netflix documentary “Gaga: Five Foot Two,” which she explained delved into the moments that she wasn’t comfortable in exposing, but agreed that the makers portrayed flawlessly. The album is named after her aunt “Joanne” who died before Gaga was born. The sold-out show already seemed like a hit when the audience members waited outside the venue for 45 minutes before the show started, but their excitement levels never died down.

Lady Gaga finally appeared on stage after no opening act, simply a DJ, to a setting that had tremendous amounts of lighting, platforms by the viewers down in general admission, and a large amount of the audience in crazy costumes from her music videos. Gaga opened with beat-heavy “Diamond Heart,” the first song of her newest album, bringing out a large army of dancers onto a moving stage with fire and smoke all around her, highlighting the jewels on her statement-wear for the concert: her glittering pink cowboy hat.

The concert kept getting bigger and bolder with other moving parts like the turning stages that descended from above, the main stage that tilted as the dancers danced—and needless to say—the flashy costumes. The sets continued with ramps that also functioned as screens, lasers that illuminated the venue, and snippets of her music videos from songs that weren’t performed. Gaga kept the audience engaged by unapologetically demanding that they stay standing throughout the concert because it’s only polite.

Gaga treated her audience to a night filled with twenty songs, all the back-to-back hits, like “Poker Face,” “Applause,” “Born This Way,” “Alejandro,” “Telephone” and “Paparazzi.” The dancers kept up with her energy with their sharp choreography and eccentric costumes, consisting of sunflower leotards, cowboy boots in “John Wayne,” and bright red leather in “Dancin’ in Circles,” a song that Gaga said brought out the her sexual side.

The ones that she sang from “Joanne” emphasized the need for inclusion, love and support. Gaga took her time when singing through “The Edge of Glory,” which was written for her best friend who died of cancer, a song which stripped her down to tears as she performed it. She said that it is during times like these that one needs to know that they’re not alone. The performance was raw, and it exposed her voice and her piano, as she took time away from her five-piece pop band. She fought and came back strong with her fearless “Born This Way,” where she sang and rocked her head back and forth directly into the camera, giving her audience a sense of perseverance.

Lady Gaga’s “Joanne” world tour was her message to the world that she is reaching out to support her fans who are going through struggles in their lives right now. Through her music she sincerely assures that she will be there for them as seen in her song “Come to Mama,” signifying her support to the LGBTQ community.

Throughout the concert, she singled out audience members who wore bling on their pink jackets and the pink cowboy hat from her album cover and repeatedly pointed and said “I love that” and “I see you.” Audience members left Scottrade ardently emotional with a resounding sound of her powerful music.