Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
Lady Gaga opened the MTV 2011 Video Music Awards as her male alter ego Jo Calderone, in a simple white t-shirt and over-sized dark blue pants — but not with a song. Instead, Jo indulged in an extended monologue/rant about his “girlfriend” Gaga. “She’s f—ing crazy!” said Gaga-as-Jo. “She comes out of the shower still drippin’, still got the heels on! At first it was sexy, but now I’m just confused.” So were many in the audience, including Britney Spears and Katy Perry, who took in Stefani Germanotta’s drag king performance with a mix of surprise and befuddlement.
“I think it’s really f—ing great that she’s still such a star,” Jo continued. “But how am I supposed to shine?… ’Cause when she gets on the stage, there’s no holding back.” Jo even complained that when Gaga reaches sexual climax, she covers her face. “Like she can’t stand to have one honest moment where nobody’s watching! I want her to be real. She says, ‘I’m not real, I’m theater.’”
Calderone then took to the piano and belted out a robust performance of Gaga’s “You and I,” complete with hard stepping back-up dancers and Brian May from Queen on guitar. Because why not?
Watch the outré affair here:
Follow Adam on Twitter @adambvary
Read more:
MTV’s 2011 VMAs: Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Adele big winners
MTV 2011 VMAs: Lady Gaga explains alter ego Jo Calderone as a New Jersey Italian who’s ‘not a f–ing guido!’
Justin Bieber to Selena Gomez: ‘My snake’s name is Johnson.’
So she basically stole again from Madonna with some Lily Tomlin and Annie Lennox thrown in. What an original.
If it takes that many people to add up to equal one performance, than how is “stealing?” Sure, she has to take ideas. Can she do anything without a rally of people claiming that she’s copying so and so. Who cares. She can sing. I don’t understand how people can claim that she has to vocal talent. At least she can sing unlike more that half of the other female artists today.
By your words, Madonna stole from the other two. Nobody owns doing drag.
Actually, i was talking about the part of Truth or Dare that Gaga stole – which had nothing to do with drag. Also, it’s not about ‘owing drag’, it’s what you do with it, and what Gaga is doing/saying has been done before, almost verbatim.
You can link any performance to another if you try hard enough, So what if something looks simliar to another persons performance? Can’t you guys shut up and enjoy the performance.
Every idea has been done at this point. Every. Single. One. There is nothing original anymore. There is only taking what’s been done and putting your own spin on it. Shakespeare knew that. There are only 4 plots. You just keep mixing up the details.
That’s a stretch. Why not just blame it entirely on laziness instead? I don’t need some fancy theory you invent to explain why everything is the same today.
Nice comment… you said it perfectly.. I may use this some day during a debate as well.. Thanks
And mostly Cher!
@Andrew Totally agree, And btw she killed her performance ths year.
Oh brother. As if Drag Kings are owned by one person. She was NOTHING like Madonna or Annie Lennox.
There’s actually nothing original in the world. People sometimes copy someone’s idea without knowing it.
i dont realy remember Madonna ever being self deprecating, or dressing like a man
VMA 1993.
Oh God, really? EVERYTHING she does is copying Madonna now?
Now? No, pretty much from the beginning, lol.
expected a bit more, otherwise she did great
There is just something about doing drag and talking about how in love with yourself you are that irks me.
Yup.
Her ego is completely out of control.
Oh definitely yeah.
I loved it! her vocals r amazing!
Overrated, boring and stupid. I’m tired of how overhyped and overrated she is. No, I’m not jealous. No, I’m not a hater. I’m smarter than all of you monsters that glorify this talentless woman.
The fact that you have to claim to be smarter than a wide range of people (including several icons of fame who are also Gaga fans)…. doesn’t make you very smart at all.
if you have to state how smart you are it pretty much means you are a pathetic loser… and you know it. You keep hiding behind your computer screen and claiming great intelligence while doing incredibly stupid things like insulting everyone who likes an artist you do not. Einstein beware *insert eyeroll here*
Agree. Arrogance under haywire.
She looks like a dude really so nothing has changed!
Wasn’t impressed…she’s had better. Luckily I was able to fast-forward a little.
Great performance by Gaga/Jo.
Gaga (oops, I mean Jo) was AMAZING! I loved it. How many of today’s pop icons, including everyone else in that room, would have the balls to do that? None. This is why Gaga is living art.
Except for the fact that it has been done (and done and done) many times before. i know she likes to think of herself as an innovator and an artiste, but she is not. Yes, she can sing and pound the ivories, but that does not make her the second coming of the Renaissance.
Shut up Sharon. You and everyone else on the “been there, done that” bandwagon are becoming as repetitive as you claim Gaga’s performances are out to be. Don’t be ignorant of the fact that everything has been done over and over time and time again.
I love how people on opposite sides of the fence can’t just agree to disagree and move on with their lives.
Anyway, she was OK. Lady gaga dresses crazy every single time, so just because she put on some man clothes, doesn’t let me ignore the fact that she just went on and on and on about herself for eight minutes.
I’m sorry but there was just something weird about her getting up there and talking about herself like that. It was creepy. You have no idea how much I want to like this woman like I used to but lately she makes it so hard.
Please. You don’t know what art is. Lady Gaga is talented, but you people go way overboard in praising her. So tired of hearing her fans act like everything she does is a work of art. She could take a dump on the stage and you would call it a masterpiece and the best dump of the century.
Can’t believe they let her smoke, isn’t that promoting smoking to all the people that like her? N most defiantly wasn’t impressed….
Don’t you know? It’s okay she she does it. (Which makes me think she might be a Republican.)
She didnt even need to smoke the cigarette to promote drugs. She was cleary on SOMETHING when she came up on the stage. Even within her parameters of normal, she seemed very off.
OMG… SO GREAT…. (little befuddled)
GaGa is not the man! She is copying Cher!!!
Yeah but, to anyone under 50, she’s not Cher, and that’s the point.
She’s very talented, but too gimmicky. Just freakin’ sing, girl.
I thought it was great. Who would you rather have open the VMA’s? Most of the other pop stars looks silly compared to Gaga.
Chris Brown should of opened it. Even though he lip singed his performance was the best.
“Who would you rather have open the VMA’s?”
Good question. How about…no one. They should cancel this lame awards show. It’s just a big reminder of how awful most of the mainstream music is.
But you have the time and interest to read and comment on the articles.
Extremely self-indulgant. At first I thought it was funny, but then I just thought it was egotistical and embarassing. I was cringing by the end. Britney Spears’ face said it all.
Im so over lady gaga. Shes overrated n now its getting sad she is an attention whore to the fullest…ppl make fun of herbc of the thingsshe does not praise her.done.
I am a huge fan of lady gaga’s writing, and singing, but this performance was just plain awful. I never thought I would say this about her, but I HATED IT. It was creepy, and just not a good opening act. This is going to hurt her.
She’s definitely peaked already via over-exposure. Versus Adele, who does not put out single after single and video after video and publicity stunt after publicity stunt – and yet she is the one with the best-selling and best-reviewed album.
This is true, but Gaga sells a crazy amount of tickets on tour. With the way media is now, no one really “buys” albums anymore. People share them, steal them, etc., so the only real way to make money is to promote yourself and to tour, which Gaga does. She’s was ranked fourth not because of the albums she sold, but her concerts. In fact she’s the only current artist in the Top 5 that has actually has come out with a new album. I think the EAGLES are number one. You have to promote so people but tickets to your concerts, which is where the real money is. Adele isn’t even close, she cancelled tour dates for a sore throat.