Jack's Info Portal: Lady Gaga's VMA Performance All About 'Fearlessness'

Friday, August 26, 2011

Lady Gaga's VMA Performance All About 'Fearlessness'

Laurieann Gibson calls opening performance an opportunity to 'create a new understanding of music.'
By Kelley L. Carter, with reporting by Christina Garibaldi

Lady Gaga
Photo: Getty Images

So much for giving up the goods.

We really tried to get Laurieann Gibson, Lady Gaga's creative director, to spill her guts about what Mother Monster has planned for her VMA performance on Sunday, but she's keeping things under wraps — in the best way possible.

She jokingly said a few censored (and, considering how much she's bleeped in the embedded video, obscene) things about what viewers will see. Long story short: She's not telling.

But Gibson did say of Gaga's opening performance, "I hope that people take the fearlessness away. The notion that you don't have to follow what is popular and that you can constantly take the opportunity and create a new understanding of music and performing.

"It could mean standing under one spotlight," she continued. "It could mean tons of camels and belly-dancing girls. I don't know. One is not necessarily better than the other. But it is about the artist. It's about 'Who's the artist?' So in that one moment, you have to take it and give it all you can."

Gibson is just following suit on the secrecy front: When Gaga talked to MTV News last week, she said she wants to surprise her fans at the VMAs. "I'm really very honored and excited to open the show," Lady Gaga told MTV News. "But I won't reveal anything; I want it to be a surprise."

From what Gaga and Gibson revealed, the performance sounds like it will be avant garde, much like her 2009 VMA set, when Gaga took the stage for a blood-soaked "Paparazzi" performance.

"It will be a continuation of everything I've been doing, and it will be exactly what they want," Gaga said. "I'm pretty good at knowing what my fans want me to do."

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com.

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