During a moment of celebration at The Grammy Awards mere weeks ahead of the release of her opus album, Mayhem, Lady Gaga delivered a clarion call for the rights of trans and queer people to exist.
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“Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love," she declared while she and Bruno Mars accepted the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group for “Die With a Smile,’ a single from Mayhem that dropped last fall.
A once-in-a-generation musical and performance artist, Gaga’s Mayhem conjures her 17-year discography beginning with The Fame (2008) while referencing a range of musical genres from synth-pop (“How Bad Do You Want Me”) to Grunge (“Perfect Celebrity”). The “Abracadabra” video premiered during the Grammy’s and features towering vocals, dramatic costumes up-cycled from her past looks, and pulsing choreography. The album is, at once, singular and quintessential Gaga. What’s also prevalent is Gaga’s profound knowledge of the intersections of art and queer culture, as in her homage to queer iconoclastic performance artists Klaus Nomi and Leigh Bowery when performing “Applause.”
Lady Gaga Mayhem album coverInterscope Records
“I know for myself in the music industry, as well as someone that moves through iconography, the LGBTQ+ plus community and the queer community has led the way in entertainment and in art for so long that to ignore or push down this community is wrong. And to me, it's a violence,” Lady Gaga tells The Advocate.
“When you have a platform, it's important to speak out about things that are important to the world that affect people's lives,” she added about speaking publicly for trans and queer people as the Trump administration ramps up attacks on LGBTQ+ people. Gaga’s advocacy for LGBTQ+ people predates her fame. During an early appearance at the National Equality March in Washington D.C. in 2009, she called on the Obama administration to legalize marriage equality.
Lady Gaga Mayhem album photo shoot Frank Lebon
“Are you listening? We will continue to push your administration to bring your promise to reality,” she decreed on the West Lawn of the White House.
The following year, she attended the MTV Video Awards clad in an Alexander McQueen meat dress calling for the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Just weeks into Trump’s first term, she performed at the Super Bowl Half Time Show, singing her queer anthem “Born This Way” and belting some terms now banned under Trump's assault on DEI, “No matter gay straight or bi / Lesbian transgender life” in a performance viewed by millions.
She affirms that activism is a life-long, 24/7 endeavor."
"I believe in kindness being a part of your everyday practice. And it's not just about what I say when I'm on stage. If I win a Grammy, it has to be what I do every day," Gaga says. "And being a member of your community, being a member of the world. And I'd say that's one of the most important things to me now in my life."
Lady Gaga Mayhem album photo shoot Frank Lebon
A coproducer on Mayhem as she has been on all of her albums, Mother Monster credits her fans, her Little Monsters, with a reciprocity that fuels her art and activism.
“We have built an almost 20-year-long organic relationship that has spanned social justice politics, advocating for people that feel different, having each other's backs, winning, losing, getting to know each other's stories,” Gaga says.“I've heard so many stories from young people about their lives. They came to me through me initially putting out music, but then what they gave to me is what I then put back into my music and reflect back to them.”
“That's probably my relationship with my fans has probably been the most beautiful part of being an artist, being famous,” she adds. “I can't imagine what it would've been like to be famous without the type of fan base that I had a fan base that stood for something and stood for each other.”
