Gaga's Coachella Set Is a Not Necessary but Deeply Appreciated Reminder of Her Superstardom

[Oprah crying at the Blue Origin spacecraft launch.GIF]

“Don’t get me started… It’s so fucking good.” That was Doja Cat after making a bunch of incoherent noises in attempting to find the words to describe not Katy Perry’s cover of “What a Wonderful World,” but rather Lady Gaga’s triumphant performance at Coachella over the weekend. It’s unequivocally true after watching Gaga set the speedometer at a breakneck pace and keep it there throughout the entirety of her breathless appearance, showcasing that her agility, stamina and peerlessness remain. Though Mayhem, her seventh studio album, has been heralded as a “return to form,” I really see this Coachella victory lap as the more distinct proof that zig-zags like Joker 2 or “Die With A Smile” (a grower of a song, not to mention a chart topper, despite haters) do nothing to derail her most powerful tool: her live performance.

This isn’t some kind of surprise. We witnessed this during her recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, when she proved that “Abracadabra,” could translate to the main stage, or during a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, when she reminded us that the microphone stays on, or on Jimmy Kimmel Live a few months ago when she reaffirmed that even without the splashy choreo or eye-catching looks, she can comfortably hold center. But this Coachella performance did something that those couldn’t by way of stamina. To watch her unrelenting command never once break focus, with barely time for a breath, was a sight to witness, and made even the dormant Little Monster in me find my paws all the way up.

Let me be clear: I’ve never wavered on my Gaga fandom. And it’s not that I’ve been down on Gaga (I’ve had “LoveDrug” on heavy rotation for weeks) so much as I missed the iteration of her that formed my love. It’s not to say I needed it back or that what she’s now giving isn’t enough so much as an acknowledgment that the ”Bad Romance”/”Speechless” Live at the 37th American Music Awards”-era of Mother Monster is what stays with me the most. And yet after witnessing this Coachella set, my thoughts on Mayhem have been reframed. Kinda like how “Abracadabra” is as much a video and piece of choreography as it is a song, Mayhem, thanks to the assist from Coachella, is now as much a live show as it is an album. And this is merely a preamble to the actual Mayhem Ball set to kick off in July.

So how did she pull it off? Let’s rewind the tape. “This is the Manifesto of Mayhem,” she began.

“The Mistress stands before me, eyes wide and full of wrath. Her cane held in her right hand, on her left foot, a cast. ‘Beware,’ she says, ‘the chaos in your heart will never cease until you find another way to harness what you seek.’ Her haunting tone, her restless speech, the music of her mouth, her screeching nails and inner life are like a storm: They’re loud. At once, in all her glory then, we both begin to dance. My head rolls back, my chest explodes, my hand begins to cramp. To not know any peace is the great nightmare for us all. To wake and feel unsettled in a house that has no walls. So I must sing and build the walls to cradle my own space. And my own sound will grow the fortress of a home erased. And her and I will find a way to live as dueling twins. But I will know, if in the end, Mistress of Mayhem, wins.”

And thus kicked off Act 1 (“Of Velvet and Vice”) of what would be a five-act musical experience. It began with Gaga in a blunt cut bob that rivals Kate Bohr’s for the win, performing “Bloody Mary,” a stand-out track from Born This Way that had a second life in 2023 after an appearance on Netflix’s Wednesday and a subsequent Tik-Tok dance made the song freshly viral.

Helping bridge the old to the new, “Bloody Mary” then seamlessly transitioned to “Abracadabra,” where she established with ease that the choreo you know and love wouldn’t be shortchanged here. And then, just as quickly as we’d cycled from old to new, we were jettisoned back again for “Judas,” a spiritual contemporary to Gaga’s latest single.

The biggest surprise on the set list came next when Gaga busted out “Scheiße,” one of my favorite Gaga tracks that, though not exactly a deep cut in the vein of “Future Love,” is definitely one of the less top-of-mind Gaga songs to see her perform in the year of our tariffs, 2025. I thought we’d just be getting the intro, but we were blessed enough to get most of the track. It was then, around the 15-minute mark, that we were treated to our first live performance of “Garden of Eden,” rumored to be Mayhem’s third single. Did she bust out the guitar for this one? Of course she did. Dance break, too? You bet.

And then Gaga came face to face with the aforementioned twin, outfitted in a white version of the Alexander McQueen dress from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

“And look at you,” she spoke to a former version of herself. “What are you doing here?” She then screamed in her face — twice — then grabbed her shoulders and situated herself opposite her on a chess board to perform “Poker Face,” as the finale to Act I.

Act II (“And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream”) continued the motif of interplaying early and new Gaga. “Perfect Celebrity” and “Disease” started things off, with “Paparazzi” and “Alejandro” following and “The Beast” finishing things off. By Act III (“The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name”), we were in an entirely new era: “Killah,” “Zombieboy,” “Die With a Smile,” “How Bad Do U Want Me” and the debut of “Abracadabra (Gesaffelstein Remix).” I’ll be curious to see how much is lifted from this set onto the tour.

Act IV (“To Make Her Is to Lose Her” followed the preestablished motif “Shadow of A Man” and “Kill For Love” (a bonus track from the new album), followed by “Born This Way” and “Shallow,” the only mid-era Gaga to make the set list (no Artpop, Joanne or Chromatica to be found), followed by “Vanish Into You.” And then we closed out with Act V (“Eternal Aria of the Monster Heart”), which was simply “Bad Romance.”

Billboard called it “genius,” Variety called it “spectacular,” and Consequence of Sound called it “one for the history books.” In short, Gaga reminded fans new and old that her capabilities are abundant: from songwriting to worldbuilding to vocal performance to entertaining. It’s not a new lesson, but a reminder within a pop ecosystem that’s entirely comfortable chewing up and spitting out. It’s an especially marvelous feat knowing the health battles she’s faced over the years, both physical and mental.

It’s not a return to form so much as a reminder of form, and one I hope will be enshrined à la Beyoncé’s Homecoming. Mostly, I’m proud of her for pulling off with such alacrity the kind of performance that few, if any, of her contemporaries could achieve. She had a confident ease throughout but it never veered into autopilot. Her consistent level of engagement showed a determination and a grit reminiscent of Simone Biles or other Olympic greats in proving the cohesion of style and substance are why she’ll keep getting her well-earned plaudits and, of course, her A-P-P-L-A-U-S-E.