Surprise Guest Lady Gaga Joins Bruno Mars on Stage at the Intuit Dome Opening

"Ladies and gentleman, put your hands together for the icon, pop royalty, Lady Gaga!" said Bruno Mars on Thursday Aug. 15 to the stadium of concert-goers at the Intuit Dome who'd just watched him perform hours of his greatest hits — and thought he was finished.

Mars' high-energy opening night concert christened Inglewood's new 18,000-seat, one-million-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, celebrated earlier in the night with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"When I first bought the LA Clippers basketball team, I said to myself, one of the great things was we'd never need to build an arena," said Chairman Steve Ballmer. "Well, it took about six months to realize it might be a good idea to have our own house."

Ballmer noted how the Dome, which took about three years to build since breaking ground, was going to be about both music and basketball. "I think of this as the best basketball facility ever built," he said.

Despite delays getting inside the venue due to ticketing issues with the app, thousands of fans — including Jennifer Lopez, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance, Meghan Trainor and Daryl Sabara, Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes, Sophia Bush, Victoria Justice and Madison Reed, Derek Hough, Amanda Kloots, Bozoma Saint John and Babyface — watched 14-time Grammy winner Mars' first solo concert in L.A. since 2018.

"Show time, guess who's back again?" sang Mars when he came out at 9:40 p.m. and kicked things off with "24K Magic."

"L.A., I can't thank you guys enough for coming out tonight," he said. "Last time we played in Los Angeles it was six years ago, but let me tell you something, [we] were sweating. But I have a feeling we're going to sweat a little more tonight."

Along with his band, a guitar, a keyboard and his signature dance moves, he kept fans on their feet with hits like "Finesse," "Treasure," "Billionaire," "That's What I Like," "It Will Rain," "I Think I Wanna Marry You, "Forget You," "Young, Wild & Free" and "Grenade."

"I'll never forget the day I was rolling around here and I heard this song on the radio," he said from the keyboard before launching into "Nothin' on You," followed by "Leave The Door Open" and "When I Was Your Man." It became a full-fledged sing-along as he continued with favorites "Locked Out of Heaven" and "Just the Way You Are."

"Until we meet again, god bless you L.A. Goodnight!" he called as he left the stage at close to 11:30 p.m. Some of the audience began to exit... until the curtain went up again, revealing Mars and Lady Gaga seated together — him with a guitar, and her before a keyboard. ("How are you feeling, L.A.?" called the pop queen, clad in a white long-sleeved dress with a bow, white tights and white pumps, plus a blond bouffant.)

"You guys are going to be the first to hear us play this song live," Mars said. "Lady Gaga just put a song out today and she was kind enough to let me be on it, and this song is called 'Die With a Smile.'"

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"If the world was ending, I'd want to be next to you," the two crooned, before Mars returned to deliver one last crowd-pleasing encore — "Uptown Funk."

Mars returns to the stage at the Intuit Dome this evening.

Read more on the Intuit Dome's food and art , as well as our July cover story with Ballmer and Zucker on the groundbreaking arena.