Lady Gaga is one of the best performers of the 2010s but does that talent follow her into the new decade? Gaga has set the bar high for pop performances and music ever since the release of her debut album The Fame back in 2008. Her influence on the music industry has been uncanny and not many other artists have reached her level. This may seem good, but does all of this success put pressure on Gaga to always exceed expectations?

Chromatica was released on May 29, 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic. Chromatica is a synthy dance-pop album with inspiration from 90s house music and cyberpunk. While the album comes off as a fun dance record, the lyrics are deep and talk about Gaga’s pains, fears, and emotions. The success of the album was shockingly small, but the pandemic set back so much that was to come. With an album meant to be played in clubs and dance bars, it was hard for it to bloom during a lockdown. Gagas fans “The Little Monsters” still enjoyed this album and helped them get through such hard times.

The tour titled The Chromatica Ball was set to kick off in 2020 but was canceled due to the pandemic. This news brought sadness and disappointment to the eager fans until the new postponed dates were set to 2021. A little later in the year, Gaga released that the 2021 dates were canceled and the new dates were unknown. Many thought after the second postponement that the album was disliked by Gaga and she wasn’t going to tour it. That inkling seemed to be true after she did a jazz show in Vegas in early 2022 with still not releasing dates for the ball. Then on March 7th Gaga released a tweet announcing the tour dates for the anticipated Chromatica Ball. The show started as a limited 6-date tour but over just a few months grew to 20 dates spanning across 3 different continents. With this news, the Little Monsters got hard at work making outfits and setlist theories.

All of the waiting finally came to rest with the first show on July 17th in Düsseldorf. Many fans were shocked with some being disappointed to see that the set was very dark and prison-esque while the album’s cover and videos were filled with vibrant pinks and greens. All of that was put aside when Gaga came out with a strong opening performance of Bad Romance. The show came to a close but many fans were questioning where the songs from her two fan favorite albums Artpop and Joanne were. As the tour dates went on she added a new song or two to each show peaking at a 25-song tracklist.

The show is filled with extraordinary visuals and vocals, with 60-foot flames and show-stopping choreography. Gaga was on a streak and still is of selling out every venue with her biggest crown of 76,000 in Paris. Stadium after Stadium, city after city, Gaga was spreading the happiness of her music to everyone.

My personal experience of the show was spectacular. As a long-time fan of Gaga I have been dying to see her live. When I got the news that I would be going to New York to see her I cried (during class by the way). The show was breathtaking and I have never felt more loved and at home in my life. One of the best parts of the experience was not the show itself, but the fans. The love was radiating in the air and all 54,000 of us could feel it. Everyone there including me felt included and supported by each other. Since Gaga’s fanbase is mostly constructed of the LGBTQIA+ community, everyone there knows how it feels to be an outcast, to be hated on, to feel like no one will understand you, but in that stadium, there was a feeling of belonging. The feeling that everyone there has been through something similar to you and can relate.

Chromatica has been through a lot from its release during the beginning of the pandemic to the postponement of the tour multiple times. Even through all of this though, the Chromatica Ball is thriving while currently in Japan and has many more stops to go back in the U.S. This album has impacted the world and will keep on doing that as time goes on. Showing that the release of pain and emotion is ok and can be let out through the action of dancing.