Image Credit: Xavier Derussit/startraksphotos.com
Lady Gaga announced tonight that she will be opening the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre August 28.
Or rather her Little Monsters did. Appearing at MTV’s Times Square studio for the broadcast premiere of her “Yoü and I” video, a legion of sequined fans on the street below unfurled a banner with the over-punctuated missive “Gaga to Open VMAs!!”
Admittedly, this comes as a bit of an anti-climax. The news came after days of Stewart/Colbert-worthy pre-announcement announcements, including a series of VMAs promos prominently featuring a (literally) stripped-down Gaga, and the “Yoü and I” video itself, which was supposed to debut tonight but leaked Tuesday. And really, who’s more obvious a choice to open a gaudy MTV spectacle than the Queen of Dramatic Entrances herself?
Still, that last point yet again begs the question that may come to define her young career: how can she keep topping herself? Her star-making 2009 VMAs performance featured an unforgettably dead-eyed Ladyship crucified on a meat-hook after a bloody version of “Paparazzi.” Then last year she maintained the butcher-shop motif with her infamous “meat dress,” setting off a chain-reaction of food-related couture culminating in her Grammys entrance via giant egg.
Music Mixers, how do you think she’ll kick off the show? With Tony Bennett predicting this week that Gaga will be “as big as Elvis,” might a duet be in order? Could her male alter ego “Joe Calderone” make an appearance? Does anyone else hope that her post-video-premiere revelation that Creature from the Black Lagoon is her favorite horror movie could be a clue? (Okay, that’s just me.) And if you’re going to hype an announcement to this degree, shouldn’t it at least end up being of this magnitude?
More on EW.com:
Lady Gaga and Cher duet ‘The Greatest Thing’ coming in September: Sample Gaga’s demo here!
Lady Gaga gets topless, jazzy, chatty for MTV VMA promos: Watch them here
Lady Gaga’s ‘You and I’ video, featuring hot Calderone-on-Germanotta action: Watch it here!
The Music Mix Lady Gaga Monitor: The best of times and the worst of times?
that stewart/colbert link doesn’t work.
I love crap.
youtube.com/embed/U5X4N2exOsU
You love crap do you? Well check out any wide release movie that’s been released this year…I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Throw everybody off by coming out in a gorgeous couturier dress with esquisitely tasteful make-up and simple yet elegant jewelry! A classical Hollywood-star look with a little Gaga twist would surprise the h3ll out of everyone, especially her “little monsters”!
Nah, she’ll wear a dress made out of live squirells.
LMAO!
How will she top herself? By coming up with somebody new to copy?
Cher maybe?
Man, GagaGooGoo, for someone wanting to pick on someone else’s originality, you sure did come up with quite a dig at Lady Gaga that I don’t think’s ever been thought of before except for the appr. 1000 days she’s been famous now.
RIGHT
She will do something that will cause the EW editors to to stop everything and turn the magazine and its website into nothing but Ga Ga coverage. Oh wait…
Better than Twilight. LOL! But no, seriously.
@abadstroller
I agree entirely. A beautiful stripped down medley of You and I and other songs [Speechless!?!? - I know it's old, but it's fantastic] would be amazing and shocking. Just Gaga and her piano, so great.
Let’s hope she does a cover of John Cage’s 4:33.
Good one!
That was the big news?! I thought it would be an announcement about the host, or those rumoured Britney and Winehouse tributes…..They gave her airtime for this?
@Simon EW gives her coverage if she sneezes.
Better than of she farted.
I think she is going to whip out her great big dong and pee on everyone in the audience.
Wow, Jake. That was so funny, one of the beat laughs I’ve had in years. To think of calling her a man…You’re about as great as GagaGooGoo! Keep it up buddy! At this rate who knows where you’ll be in a good ten years… Probably McDonalds!
I agree that doing something simple to put more focus on her amazing live performing abliities would be great to watch and very unexpected. But, knowing MTV, they will put pressure on her to do something over-the-top with an extreme, “throw everything at the wall” performance.
who’s actually hosting?
STDs. Think about it…
Its gonna be another freak show. She’s not even remotely attractive. Its like a dragshow everytime at best.
Well, you’re pretty ugly too, and you can’t even sing!
That was sonpositive DMB! Thank you for that uplifting comment! See you at our shrink next Monday!
I agree she is dwindling to nothing its annoying she is now putting on this fake “wanna be sweet britnay act” she just needs to shut the pie hole and make music people actually like
Wait — HOST, or open?? This article says the fans’ sign said “Host”. That is a huge difference than just open…
She is not that great live. I saw her in concert and she was singing with tracks and has no stage presence. Why else would someone make them self so ugly?
Well I disagree completely on that. Anyone who made it to the top as fast as she did and is constantly in the public eye is bound to have detractors, no doubt. But to try to (more than likely, falsely) accuse her of not singing live and having no stage prescence…?!? Did you see her on The View singing Y&I a couple weeks ago? She TORE IT UP and the way she ad-libbed saying ‘the view’ and the hosts’ names shows how well she knows her songs and how she can bounce off her material to fit wherever. To me, she has the talent to back the persona or caricature or whatever you wanna call it up whereas someone like Ke$ha simply doesn’t and as a result is the reason she is probably the most famous pop star on Planet Earth right now.
Wow Regina!
Do you get out of the house much? Several posts already defending your Momma. Please get a life or do what your idol did brilliantly…morph into a character 24/7 and one up the Madonna playbook. With everything going on in the world today, I could care less how Gaga will top herself…doesn’t she do that everyday she gets up? Color me bored with you and your mentor.
In Regina Voice “Stop trying to make Ga Ga happen! ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
I’ve seen almost every legendary artist perform live in the last 45+ years, including Madonna, and Gaga is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Yes she performs with backing tracks but she also performs with her band, and she performs solo with just her piano. She has incredible stage presence, and gives a powerhouse two-hour performance that goes hard. The Monster Ball was like Broadway on steroids, an incredible show. I can’t wait for her next tour.
She’s not my fave, but I’m looking forward to her performance. She’s a good singer/performer. I was hoping the rumors about her participating in the Britney tribute were true:-(
never know!
NEBER KNOW…….I SEE IT HAPPENING
I hope so! I’d love her for that!
britney is the vmas
Gaga is a great performer. I hope she does a simple jazz performance of You and I. I love that song.