Lady Gaga made Olympian history when she performed for the 2024 Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony steps away from the Seine River on July 26, 2024, which inevitably got us thinking about Lady Gaga’s record-breaking Paris performance two years earlier during “The Chromatica Ball” tour.
Sure, the “Chromatica” show might’ve had noticeably fewer pink feathers and French lyrics, but the fiery performance marked an important milestone in the multi-hyphenate performer’s career.
Lady Gaga’s Paris “Chromatica” Appearance Broke Records
Lady Gaga’s “The Chromatica Ball” tour was full of firsts for the multi-talented musician. Not only was the tour in support of Gaga’s sixth studio album, ‘Chromatica,’ which she released during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. But the 20-day run was also the performer’s first all-stadium show, including stops in London, Boston, Tokyo, Düsseldorf, and Paris, the last of which marked a significant moment in Gaga’s career.
The singer, instrumentalist, and actor performed a sold-out show at the Stade de France on July 24, 2022, to a massive crowd of 76,000 people. The crowd was the largest in Lady Gaga’s performance career, beating her previous Stade de France appearance on the “Born This Way Ball” tour by 6,000 fans. True to Gaga’s fashion, the “Chromatica” show was a feast of lights, latex, and dance breaks. She opened the show with a pair of back-to-back bangers, “Bad Romance” and “Just Dance.”
Lady Gaga then continued her Parisian party with tracks from her 2020 release, ‘Born This Way,’ and, of course, the classic single from her then-recent 2018 movie A Star Is Born, “Shallow.”
Freddie Hill wrote their review of the stunning concert for Express, saying, “After filling the Super Bowl stadium with generation-defining performances twice, we knew that Gaga could sing and entertain a major crowd with aplomb. But to maintain this energy with studio-ready vocals throughout a lengthy show, featuring on-stage costume changes and heavily intricate group choreography, Lady Gaga has cemented her status as one of the great performers of all time.”
The Superstar Returned Two Years Later To Make History Again
Two years after Lady Gaga broke her attendance records at the “Chromatica Ball” Paris show, she returned to the French capital to make history again. The consummate performer, along with a group of black-clad dancers holding large, bubblegum pink feather fans, offered a delightfully vintage, campy, and quintessentially Gaga rendition of Renée Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc en Plumes” (“My Thing With Feathers”).
The performance, an apparent homage to French performer Zizi Jeanmaire’s rendition of “Mon Truc en Plumes” during her 1965 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, took place on a staircase leading down to the Seine River. Once again, Lady Gaga made history in Paris, marking the first time she ever performed at the international games. From her flirty dancing to perfectly belted French to her brief stint behind a shiny black grand piano, Gaga’s performance was a wildly entertaining (and trés français) way to kick off the 2024 summer games.
“I feel so completely grateful to have been asked to open the Paris Olympics this year,” Lady Gaga wrote in a follow-up Instagram post. “I am also humbled to be asked by the Olympics organizing committee to sing such a special French song—a song to honor the French people and their tremendous history of art, music, and theatre.”
“Although I am not a French artist, I have always felt a very special connection with French people and singing French music,” she continued. “I wanted nothing more than to create a performance that would warm the heart of France, celebrate French art and music, and on such a momentous occasion remind everyone of one of the most magical cities on earth: Paris. It’s a gift I’ll never forget.”
Photo by Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
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