Lady Gaga Kicks Off Her Chromatica Ball Summer Stadium Tour! See Her Dramatic Performance Looks
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
Lady Gaga returned to the stage on Sunday for the first show in her long-awaited Chromatica Ball Summer Stadium tour.
After a two-year delay, the tour — which was originally postponed in June 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic — kicked off with a sold-out show in front of 54,000 people at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The concert was the the first ever public live performance of Gaga's No. 1 selling, sixth studio album, Chromatica. Fan favorite tracks from the LP were among the 20-song set list, including "Rain on Me," "Stupid Love," "Replay," "Free Woman," "911" and "Alice."
Other songs included hits from the songstress' massive discography such as "Bad Romance," "Poker Face," "Shallow," and more (though songs from Gaga's 2013 album Artpop and her 2016 album Joanne appeared to be skipped). The show capped with "Hold My Hand," a single which dropped in May and was written for Top Gun: Maverick.
RELATED: Lady Gaga Dazzles on the Oscars Stage in Sparkling Tuxedo — Minutes After Partying in a Ball Gown
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
Of course, this being Gaga, the Chomatica Ball tour was littered with over-the-top theatrical moments and avant-garde outfits, including a striking headdress she paired with a black latex bodysuit.
Her piano was set inside a gorgeous sculpture of thorns.
She was also photographed in a red ensemble that include a jacket with dramatic puff sleeves and a painted bodysuit with duck-tape x's over her nipples. Another look dressed Gaga in a head-to-toe grey look with high-waisted, belted pants.
RELATED: Lady Gaga Announces Rescheduled Chromatica Ball Tour Dates — and Adds 8 More!
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
In a video Gaga posted to Instagram earlier Sunday, the entertainer gave fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the show, nothing that she had not been on tour since 2018.
"The stage was inspired by brutalist architecture, materials, textures, crudity, transparency. A real savage and hard look at yourself, what you've been through," she said. "I wanted to tell a story with abstraction and art, so the show celebrates things that I have always loved like art and fashion and dance and music and technology, poetry, and the way all of those things work together."
She continued, "Everybody has worked so hard on this show and we love you so much. We're so grateful … I want to thank you for sticking it out with me and loving me through the different iterations of my artistry as well as me as a person."
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
RELATED: Lady Gaga Plants a Smooch on Tom Cruise as He Supports Her at Concert: 'I Love You My Friend'
Chromatica was released in May 2020. The Chromatica Ball Tour, produced by Live Nation, will continued across Europe, Asia, and North America for 19 more shows with stadium stops in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, England, Canada, the U.S. and Japan.
Fans can access VIP Packages, may of which include premium tickets, VIP parking, special entry and exclusive access to a pre-show lounge.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
Since the release of Chromatica, Gaga released Dawn of Chromatica, a remix album of the original featuring musicians like Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama on Sept. 3. She also released Love for Sale with icon Tony Bennett, a Cole Porter tribute album on Sept. 30.
She also returned to the big screen, with an acclaimed performance in House of Gucci.
This May, Gaga wrote on Instagram that her recent single "Hold My Hand" was a "love letter" to them.
"When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick, I didn't even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film's heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we've been living in. I've been working on it for years, perfecting it, trying to make it ours," she wrote. "I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other — a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life's heroes."
