Lady Gaga reveals she started to ‘break down’ during Joanne tour, but ‘power of glam’ kept her going
Lady Gaga during her Joanne world tour. (Getty)
Lady Gaga credited the “the power of glam” with saving her from a breakdown during her Joanne world tour.
The Oscar-winning star said that being constantly on the road began to take its toll on her during the Joanne tour, her fifth solo world tour in under a decade.
“When I was doing the Joanne tour [in 2017/18], I’d been touring since I was 22 years old,” Gaga told Allure.
“I’d just done the Super Bowl show, Coachella, A Star Is Born. I really started to break down.”
The singer described her intense itinerary: “I would do the show, then I would get on an airplane, go to another country or state, get off, drive 40 minutes to the hotel, go to sleep, wake up, do another show. I was dizzy.”
In stereotypically flamboyant form, she said that her saving grace was “the power of glam”.
They would hold me and say, ‘Look at yourself. There’s Lady Gaga. You can do this. Now go do it.’
“Sarah [Tanno, her makeup artist] would pick me up off the floor, sit me in a chair, dry my tears, and say, ‘I’m going to put on your face now,'” she recalled, crying.
“Sarah would do my makeup, Freddie [Aspiras] would do my hair, and they would hold me and say, ‘Look at yourself. There’s Lady Gaga. You can do this. Now go do it.’
“And I would go out there, and the second that spotlight hits me, bam, I’m in the zone. But I can’t do that without them. That is the power of glam for me.”
Lady Gaga at the 2019 Met Gala. (Getty)
Gaga gave the interview to mark the launch of her make-up line Haus Laboratories, which she said will continue her legacy of being an LGBT+ ally.
“I would like all gender identities to know very clearly that they are included, and never exploited, ever,” she said.
“I want that little boy at home that might like to be called a girl to say, ‘Mommy, I want to wear Dynasty. It’s a Glam Attack.’ And then Mommy goes, ‘Oh, my son wants to be called a girl, and he wants the Glam Attack.'”
She compared this to times when young LGBT+ fans had taken their parents to her concerts.
“They’d lean over and they’d say, ‘Mommy and Daddy, I’m gay.’ Or, ‘I’m not a boy; I’m a girl.’ Or, ‘I’m not a girl; I’m a boy.’
“I have heard those stories so many times, over and over, for all of the years that I have been in this business. And I want the same thing to happen with this company. If I’m not changing people’s lives, what are we doing here?”
