There’s no questioning how committed Lady Gaga is when it comes to her concerts as it was revealed that she pushed through performing for five shows despite having COVID-19.
In an interview with Access Hollywood during the premiere of her Gaga Chromatica Ball concert special, the singer-songwriter took the time to discuss her seventh headlining concert tour that began in 2022.
“This was such a special time. This tour went on during a time that people didn’t think that you could tour [amid the pandemic] and stadiums were packed all over the world and they were sold out, all dressed up and dancing and singing. I’m just so excited for you all to see what we made up close,” Gaga said.
She then revealed that she “did five shows with COVID.”
“I shared it with everyone on my team. I said, ‘I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable at work and you don’t have to perform and you don’t have to work that day, but I’m going to do the show’ because I just didn’t want to let all the fans down,” she explained.
She continued, “And the way that I saw it also is like the fans were all putting themselves in harm’s way every day coming to the show.”
Gaga described her Chromatica album and concert tour as “the end of a time of my life and the beginning of a totally new one.”
“I feel like that time is actually maybe a few albums of time that I was sort of saying goodbye to old wounds or scars or challenges and with this tour, I felt really renewed to do something entirely different,” she highlighted.
“I think I felt brave enough to embrace this brutalist aesthetic in a way that I wasn’t brave enough to do when I first put the album out,” she added.
On why she chose to release this specific tour as a concert film, the Joker: Folie à Deux star shared that she felt like the Chromatica Ball was a time when she took herself “to the next level” and it was something worth documenting and seeing for people that she loves.
“I’m sure there’s lots of tours and albums that I’ve been a part of that you all would have loved to have seen up close, and I’m sorry for the ones that you didn’t have. But I hope that you know that what you’re about to watch, I stand by this with everything,” she said.
On her plans for the future, Gaga said that she’s “in the studio every single day.”
“I have written so many songs, I’ve been producing so many songs, and it’s nothing like anything that I’ve ever made before. I love to break genre and I love to explore music. There’s something really beautiful about knowing that you will be loved no matter what you do,” she emphasized.
Gaga Chromatica Ball premieres Saturday on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.