Topics: Lady Gaga, Coachella, Music, Social Media, Art, US News, California, Celebrity
Lady Gaga isn't actually shy when it comes to making a stir, and her Coachella performance may be the most controversial yet, according to some on social media.
With the title 'Mother Monster' to boot, it's fair to say Lady Gaga isn't exactly for the faint-hearted - just as tens of thousands of 'Little Monsters' discovered for themselves over at the main stage of California's hotly anticipated Coachella festival on Friday (April 11).
The iconic New York pop artist made her grand return to the music world with her sixth studio album, 'Mayhem', in March this year.
This is the singer's second time as a headliner for the festival, with her first being in 2017 after the release of her 2016 album, 'Joanne'.
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This recent set was also a blast from the past for 'Little Monsters' in the audience and at home, with Gaga not only performing songs from her latest album, but also from her 2011 'Born This Way' album and her 2008 debut 'The Fame', PageSix reports.
"Welcome to my house of mayhem," she announced in reference to her latest album - and mayhem it was.
Gaga later sang her 2008 hit 'Poker Face' on a giant chess board while her dancers played the role of various chess pieces.
She told the dazzled crowd that she intended on making a 'romantic gesture' by giving them an 'opera house in the desert' before launching into 'Abracadabra', 'Judas' and 'Scheiße', all of course with new unsettling props and dancers, from plague doctors to zombies and skeletons.
But the striking visuals, flamboyant costumes and stunning sets didn't land quite so well with some on social media.
Claiming the House of Gucci star was 'demonic', one viewer said: "This is disturbing how such talent in choreography, stage production and amazing vocals is used to spread tales of death, evil, and satan."
"Why are the most popular artists so satanist and so loved?" another said with a screenshot of Gaga in a bird-like costume with talon fingers.
"Just look at the Lady Gaga concert at Coachella right now."
However, such criticism is few and far between as plenty of Gaga stans raced online to dub it not only the best show by the 'Alejandro' singer, but the 'greatest' in Coachella history.
"Satanic rituals, fighting doppelgangers, chess queen dance battles, zombies, unsettling crutch walks...it's a Lady Gaga opera at #Coachella," a fan wrote. "Our girl is back #GagaChella."
"Oh Lady Gaga [is] easily one of the best headliners in Coachella history," said a second.
A third added: "I don’t know about you all but Lady Gaga performance deserves ALL kind of nominations in the world cause WTF IS THIS."
"Lady Gaga didn’t headline Coachella," someone else said, adding: "She reimagined it. The direction, the operatic arrangements, the theatricality, the vocals, the architecture, the costumes, the light design. wagnerian in ambition, pop in language, divine in execution."
Meanwhile, others simply dubbed the whole thing as 'art' and said they had 'no words,' describing it as the 'greatest Coachella set of all time.'
Before her set, Gaga hinted at her excitement at nerves before taking to the stage.
Speaking to the New York Times, she said: 'I’m getting ready for Coachella, and I’m so, so excited, but I’ve definitely lost sleep a whole bunch of nights, and it’s because I want to do a great job.
"If there’s a time and a date where you can make the public smile, from 11 p.m. to 1 in the morning on this day, I want to make it happen."
The jaw-dropping display comes as the 14-time Grammy winner announced tour dates across the US, UK, Europe and Australia towards the end of 2025 for her 'The Mayhem Ball'.
UNILAD has contacted Lady Gaga's reps for comment.
