You’ve met Lady Gaga. You’ve met Ally Maine. You’ve even met Jo Calderone. Now, get ready for Gaga’s latest, greatest alter ego: Enigma.
After a lot of teasing on Instagram, Lady Gaga finally unveiled Enigma at the opening night of her hotly-anticipated Las Vegas residency on Friday. The residency is a retrospective look back at Gaga’s career, in which she performs hits including “Poker Face,” “Applause,” “Born This Way,” and “Paparazzi.” The audience also saw her first live performance of “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, as well as the resurrection of older songs such as “The Fame” (last performed in 2011) and “Government Hooker” (last performed in 2013), according to Rolling Stone.
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Enigma (both the title of the show and Gaga’s character) opened with “Just Dance,” which Gaga began by floating above the audience, clad in a sequin jumpsuit, blue wig, and keytar in hand. (The character “Enigma,” then, does not appear to be all that different from classic, old-school Lady Gaga.) As she flew in, she appeared to wave to Katy Perry, who was standing by the stage. Guess they quashed that beef for real.
Video of Katy Perry enjoying Gaga fly above her during “Just Dance” #ENIGMA pic.twitter.com/Zar20Yi8zm
— LG Updates (@LadyGagaVegas) December 29, 2018
Throughout the show, an anime character Gaga previewed on Instagram a few hours before opening night appeared on a screen behind her. She also sat atop (and appeared to control) a huge, metal-plated robot during “Scheiße.”
Gaga closed out the show with a nod to one of her IRL personas — that of a serious, critically-acclaimed actress — by playing “Shallow.”
“They thought I was shallow, but this shit is deep as fuck,” she said before starting the song.
Not everyone will be able to make it to Enigma. But, no matter what, that’s the energy we could all stand to take into 2019.