Lady Gaga attended the HBO's Gaga Chromatica Ball red carpet and Q&A session held at Nya Studios in Los Angeles on May 23.
David John/Getty Images for HBO
With dark hair, bleached eyebrows and a white outfit inspired by car parts, Lady Gaga debuted her Gaga Chromatica Ball concert special in her signature style at a premiere for fans in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
The concert film follows Lady Gaga as she takes over Dodger Stadium during the Los Angeles leg of her 2022 Chromatica Ball Tour, performing her biggest hits and new songs from her 2020 album Chromatica. Lady Gaga's first-ever all-stadium tour consists of just 20 shows, kicking off in Germany in July 2022 and wrapping up in Miami two months later.
At the premiere, Lady Gaga quickly changed into a black outfit complete with a glittery mask after the red carpet and participated in a short Q&A with Access Hollywood's Scott Evans before the screening. Attendees were informed in advance that it would be a standing-room only event and were encouraged to dance throughout the film.
“I feel so blessed to be here with you all and I'm so excited,” Gaga told hundreds of fans. “It's been such a special time. This tour has come at a time when nobody thought we could tour. [amid the pandemic] “And we've had stadiums all over the world that are full, sold out, people dressed up, dancing and singing. We can't wait for people to see first-hand what we've created.”
During the chat, she revealed that she had “done five shows during the COVID pandemic,” explaining, “I told my whole team about it. I said, 'I don't want you to have a bad experience at work, you don't have to perform, you don't have to work that day, but the show is going to be done,' because I didn't want to disappoint my fans. And it seemed to me that all of my fans were putting themselves at risk every day to come to the shows.”
Reflecting on the tour, Gaga said that both the tour and the album “were the end of my life in a lot of ways and the beginning of a whole new era. And I feel like maybe that period was when I was just kind of saying goodbye to old wounds and scars and challenges. And this tour really allowed me to refresh and do something totally different.” She noted that the aesthetic of the tour was quite different from the album, acknowledging, “I think I had the courage to embrace this brutalist aesthetic, which I didn't have when I first put out the album.”
She also talked about the show's unique fashion, stage design and choreography (“It was the first time I'd ever toured in flats,” she joked), and why “Babylon” was the hardest song to perform.
When asked why she chose to release the tour as a concert film, Gaga explained, “Chromatica Ball was when I took myself to the next level and I felt it was worth documenting and showing to all the people I love. It's not that I haven't loved my other tours. I think we can all relate to the feeling that being personally proud of something and being proud of everyone around you are very different.”
“I think personal passion is a truly personal experience,” she continued. “I know there's a lot of stuff on the tour and the album that I was a part of that you all would have loved to see up close and personal, and I'm sorry that you didn't get to see it, but I want you to know that I'm true to this in every way that you're going to see.”
Lady Gaga and Scott Evans talk onstage. David John/Getty Images for HBO
Gaga said, “I'm in the studio every day. I've written a lot of songs and produced a lot of songs, but this is completely different from anything I've ever done before. I love breaking genres and I love exploring music. It's really beautiful to know that no matter what I do, I'll be loved,” and thanked the audience for making her feel that way. Gaga added, “What I'm definitely exploring right now is the art of a certain intensity, and I think this art of intensity actually started during this tour, but it's not over yet.”
After the Q&A, fans danced to the film and stopped to take photos in an attached exhibit featuring many of the costumes from the tour. The Gaga Chromatica Ball premieres Saturday on HBO and is available to stream on Max.