In the history of the music business there are standout performances that become lore. Paul McCartney singing “Hey Jude” at the Super Bowl XXXIX halftime show. Prince’s jaw-dropping solo on George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony—a song he’d never heard before being approached for the appearance. Heart, at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors regaling members of Led Zeppelin (and bringing Robert Plant to tears) with a rousing run at “Stairway To Heaven,”—with the late John Bonham’s son Jason on drums. The list goes on, pick your winners.
I nominate Lady Gaga’s March 8 live performance of “Killah” on a recent Saturday Night Live episode to join this pantheon of great performances. In the splendidly choreographed assault, the lady demonstrated from start to finish excitement, relevance, a genre pedigree (rock and soul) both old and new, and heat. In the words of Dick Clark on American Bandstand, “You could dance to it.”
Others commenting on the song, from new album Mayhem, have mentioned echoes of David Bowie’s “Fame” in Gaga’s original composition, as well as nods to the aforementioned Prince. They’re there, and the true meaning of artistic tribute rises like Tenacious D’s Fenix in the track. “Killah” is no knock-off, but an amalgamation of style and theme that Bowie and Prince worked unparalleled magic with. It’s well known that hand-in-hand with Gaga’s immaculate pop sensibilities goes a reverence for heavy rock. This couldn’t be made clearer on SNL when she makes a herky-jerky trek to the stage with two garish accomplices, passing backstage crew members frozen in time, then takes three steps up to where the band’s cranking. Wielding two drumsticks, she conducts the drummer through an up-tempo bash session no one hearing and seeing for the first time could’ve seen coming.
I was introduced to Lady Gaga when I heard the strains of “Poker Face” from my daughter’s bedroom in 2008. Even then, as a committed classic, hard rock, and heavy metal fan, I took notice. The erotic element was updated from Madonna’s heyday, more explicit, and there was a throbbing industrial/tech edginess to the instrumentation that couldn’t be ignored.
Cut to 2025—just wow. Coiffed in a flat black, Sassoon-esque hairdo, throwing up her legs and throwing down a gauntlet of relevance, Gaga’s final reveal is spectacular.