Little Wonder: Lady Gaga Stuns at Grammys With David Bowie Tribute

When it was first announced that Lady Gaga would perform the much-anticipated David Bowie tribute at this year’s Grammy Awards, some naysayers protested that the 29-year-old pop star (while clearly a fan, as evidenced by the Aladdin Sane lightning-bolt war paint she used to wear in her “Just Dance” days, but not one of Bowie’s peers) just wasn’t the woman for such a daunting job. Talk about being under pressure.

But when she took the Staples Center stage Monday night, Lady Gaga transformed into Lady Stardust, and she pulled it off perfectly. Bowie himself — a man who in the later years of his career worked with younger artists like Trent Reznor and Arcade Fire, and always defied genre expectations — probably would have loved it.

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Joined by Bowie’s longtime collaborator and Let’s Dance producer Nile Rodgers, who served as musical director for the extravaganza, Gaga first appeared in extreme close-up, special-effects technology painting Bowie-makeup graphics across her shadowed face. Then she emerged, resplendent in a flame-orange Ziggy wig and a kimono-style cape like the one Kansai Yamamoto designed for Bowie’s early-’70s Ziggy Stardust Tour.

Shortly afterwards, Gaga flung off that cape to reveal a sharp-shouldered white glam jumpsuit and feather boa, and she tore through nine Bowie classics from the icon’s golden years, chronologically ordered from 1969’s “Space Oddity” through 1983’s “Let’s Dance.”

The spectacle certainly had all the grand theatricality one would expect from a Gaga/Bowie pairing, but it was, more than anything else, respectful and tasteful, and completely gimmick-free (much like Gaga’s lovely Sound of Music homage at last year’s Oscars). There was no egg-hatching, no meat dress, no bizarre R. Kelly cameo, no flaming piano or smashed whiskey bottles, no rambling monologue by her male alter ego Jo Calderone. She simply sang, gloriously, making David Bowie’s music the real star of the show. And at the end, during the 10th-song finale of “Heroes,” when she and Rodgers turned to face a swirling, wall-sized portrait of Bowie’s painted face, it was as magical as the Grammys get.

While many shared the sentiment of “Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am,” for Gaga’s performance, there were a fair number of fans who were unimpressed by the spectacle; seemingly finding it overly dramatic, not respectful or worthy of Bowie’s legacy, or simply silly. Still there were many willing to give Gaga her due.

Lady Gaga’s Grammy performance continues a career comeback for her, starting with last year’s Sound of Music Oscars tribute and Grammy-winning Tony Bennett collaboration, and following this year’s Golden Globes Best Actress win, Oscars Best Song nomination, and triumphant national anthem performance at Super Bowl 50. Even with the flak she’s getting from people who didn’t appreciate her tribute, clearly she will still be a hero for more than just one day.

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