In what is certainly one of the most activity-laden winter weekends in Atlanctic City history, the return of Lady Gaga trumps all else.
Gaga at Grammys
THIS WEEKEND, WITH A FULL slate of entertainment options, the talk of the town is again the curious queen of the pop-music scene Lady Gaga. As was the case when she appeared in all her flamboyant splendor last year in Atlantic City, she’s got the lion’s share of the limelight shined right on her at the resort, and one gets the sense she wouldn’t want it any other way.
The five-time Grammy award winner (three last Sunday, two last year) seems to stop at nothing to call attention to herself, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As the cliché goes, if you’ve got it, flaunt it, and she can back up her brazenness with legitimate talent, panache and musical ability, whether you care for her style or not.
“I was always an entertainer — I was a ham as a little girl and I’m a ham today,” she says on her Web site (ladygaga.com). “I always loved rock and pop and theater. When I discovered Queen and David Bowie is when it really came together for me and I realized I could do all three.”
Lady Gaga, 24, kicks off her North America 2011 tour at Boardwalk Hall on Saturday night, Feb. 19 (the tour ends in Mexico City, Mexico, on May 6). Her last appearance in A.C. (not her first, as AC Weekly freelance photographer Nick Valinote got a shot of her in 2008 during the International DJ Expo at Showboat’s House of Blues, when she was still a relative unknown) was scheduled for January 2010 at the Borgata Event Center, but she canceled “due to exhaustion.”
Also canceled during that timeframe was a scheduled guest appearance at the “Hands Up for Marriage Equality” benefit at Showboat’s Club Worship — an LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender) function that would have served to express her opposition to gender bias, homophobia and sexism in the music industry. She rescheduled for July 4 weekend and moved her show from the Event Center to Boardwalk Hall, easily selling out the much larger Atlantic City venue. This Saturday’s show will include songs from The Fame Monster, which earned her three Grammys. Her debut album, The Fame, was an international sensation, peaking at No. 2 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 chart (but spawning two No. 1 singles — “Just Dance” and “Poker Face”).
Gaga’s fans got a taste of her latest material at the Grammys last Sunday, where she sang the title track to her forthcomng CD (to be released in May) called Born This Way, and entered the stage riding in on a giant egg. Earlier that evening she appeared on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper (in an interview taped in England in October 2010), where a segment included the two drinking snifters of Jameson together in a British pub, and where she admitted to having kicked a cocaine addiction but not a passion for occasional pot smoking. “I smoke a lot of pot when I write music,” she said. “I’m not going to sugar-coat it for 60 Minutes that I’m some sober human being, ‘cause I’m not. I drink a lot of whiskey and I smoke weed when I write. I don’t do it a lot because it’s not good for my voice. I don’t want to encourage kids to do drugs, but what artists do wrong is they lie. I don’t want to lie to my fans.”
Through Wednesday, Feb. 16, tickets were still available to Gaga’s Saturday show. And several specials related to her appearance are going on around town, including one at Trump Plaza (adjoining the Hall), where their “Gaga for Gaga” signature drink specials include such concoctions as the “Little Monster’s Mix” (gin, Apple Pucker and pineapple juice), the “Paparazzi Potion” (Absolut vodka, Chambord, club soda and a lemon twist), “A Shot of Bad Romance” (Cointreau, grape vodka and Sprite), “Telephone Treat” (Amaretto, peach schnapps and cream) or the “Poker Face Twist” (Sambuco, Crème de Noyeaux, lime juice and sour mix). Guests who parking in the Trump Plaza garage that night will receive a flyer redeemable for $2 off the $11 price of these drinks.
Both stories include a pair of huge pop stars collaborating — or at least talking about collaborating — at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall.
For a while it appeared that Spears was about to tank since she seemed to make one poor choice after another. In 2007 she wrote on her Web site that she hit rock bottom and then she lost custody of her children.
“I’ve played quite a few times in [Las] Vegas, including on the Penn and Teller show and doing several private parties, and I’ve spent some time in what they call casino culture, but I’ve always longed to play Atlantic City."
Hours before the show, fans lined the Atlantic City Boardwalk donning bow-tie wigs, tutus, capes, nine-inch pumps and hair-curlers made from soda cans, creating an atmosphere of pomp and eccentricity, which is standard of any Gaga appearance.
"Do you think I am sexy?" Lady Gaga asked the sold-out Boardwalk Hall crowd. "I’m severely unconfident in myself so I kind of abuse this part of the show. So do you think I’m sexy?”
On assignment at the event for Atlantic City Weekly, freelance photographer Nick Valinote was there and caught this wonderful early shot of one of the biggest names in music today....
The question was never if Humperdink, Goulet, Dangerfield or Rickles was in town. The question was which one was in town. They were the heavyweights of the casino showroom.
It’s not difficult to see why the pop-music world and beyond is gaga over Lady Gaga. In just over a year the sensual diva has gone from virtual unknown to a superstar, who has sold more than eight million copies of her initial albums, 2008’s 'The Fame' and 2009’s 'The Fame Monster.'
Article:
First Bartender Awards
Nominees Announced!
Article:
Banding Together for Autism
Article:
Stir It Up at Sammy’s
Beach Bar
Article:
Boogie Nights Grand Opening at Tropicana Atlantic City
Article:
Boogie Nights: May the 4th Be With You
Article:
Devil in the Dark Hits NJ Motorsports Park
Article:
Angelic Ascent
at Ego
Share this Story: