Girl Gaga bid a tearful farewell to her landmark Jazz & Piano concert events at Las Vegas’ Dolby Dwell Theater inside Park MGM on Saturday, July 6. All through the two-hour efficiency, Gaga hinted at an eventual return to the Strip, gave a shout-out to her dad and boyfriend in attendance, and praised her jazz mentor, Tony Bennett.
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In the course of the finale, she poked the viewers with a cheeky, “I can’t consider that is the final time we’re going to do that. No, it’s not, we’ll do it once more …” All through this run of Jazz & Piano, which started on June 19, Gaga teased a possible new residency, telling audiences, “… once we come again, we hope you’ll come again, we’ll have a brand-new present for you.” At one other time, she confirmed it could be “pop.”
This primary Las Vegas residency flip from Gaga started as two reveals: the progressive pop Enigma, which opened on Dec. 28, 2018, adopted by Jazz & Piano on Jan. 20, 2019. Twin residencies with totally several types of music was a groundbreaking notion; no artist had beforehand tried it in Las Vegas.
Girl Gaga Jazz & Piano drew inspiration from the Nice American Songbook. Additionally, it featured jazz rearrangements of Gaga’s hottest work, together with “Paparazzi,” “Born This Method,” and “Unhealthy Romance,” which intensify the lyrics in ways in which the pop variations don’t. These additions allowed an viewers that is perhaps greatest accustomed to her from her work with Tony Bennett on their collaborative albums Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love for Sale (2021) to get to know her as a lyricist.
Over its 48 performances, Jazz & Piano skilled a rollercoaster of highs and lows, together with a 21-month pause, Bennett’s passing and an Oscar win for greatest track for A Star is Born.
Opening night time noticed Gaga and Bennett take the stage collectively. “You realize this man proper right here: When everybody was calling me a tramp, he was calling me a woman. We love you, Tony,” Gaga mentioned when introducing her then 92-year-old duet associate. They lovingly belted via “Girl is a Tramp” and “Cheek to Cheek.”
The ultimate run, the eighth iteration of Jazz & Piano, carried on most of the residency’s traditions whereas including new surprises that her little monsters love.
The present began with a black and white video of Gaga and her bandmates backstage warming as much as Nat King Cole’s “Orange Coloured Sky” broadcast on the side-stage screens. The band, with conductor Michael Bearden, trumpeter and bandleader Brian Newman, pianist and organist Alex Smith, saxophonist Steve Kortyka, drummer Donald Barrett, and bassist Daniel Foose backed by a full orchestra, took the stage and kicked off the night with the basic Vegas anthem “Luck Be A Girl,” as they’ve 47 different occasions.
As he did on opening night time again in 2019 when he appeared in individual, Bennett, who handed away final July, at age 96, launched the star through voiceover: “Women and gents, the unimaginable Girl Gaga.” Even after his loss of life, Bennett remained an omnipresent a part of the present.
Each word sang and performed on closing night time felt like an extended, raspy, soulful goodbye love letter delivered within the “wisegal” showroom banter for which her jazz persona “the “Girl” has turn into recognized.
“Las Vegas, you might be in for a deal with … it’s Saturday, and you’re going to really feel like shit on Monday and within the morning, too,” Gaga promised. “That is the final present of this residency in Las Vegas, which implies tonight we’ll make you sick. You’ll be so sick, however the most effective is but to come back.”
This assertion launched Sinatra’s tune of the identical title. Modifying the lyrics of “The Greatest is But to Come” to “Las Vegas, I’m gonna train you to fly.”
A visibly emotional Gaga gave each track its send-off, her band matching the vitality with blow-out instrumentation and the sell-out crowd gushing with adoration via a number of standing ovations.
There have been particular friends within the viewers. 4 songs in, Gaga shouted out her father, Joe Germanotta. After downing a glass of whiskey in a single gulp, she mentioned, “My daddy taught me how to do this—my daddy is within the viewers tonight, thanks, dad—name me irresponsible …”
Within the lead-up to “Do I Love You,” Gaga known as out boyfriend Michael Polansky. “I don’t know for those who introduced anyone you’re keen on tonight, however I introduced any individual with me that I like, Mr. Michael Polansky. I can’t carry you up on stage, however you might be all the time in my coronary heart, honey,” she mentioned.
The costumes have modified all through the years with glowing new additions, and for this stretch of dates, the wardrobe obtained a whole revamp. Gaga’s re-evaluation of the night, with its ornate bejeweled necklace and headpiece, felt as if it got here from Elizabeth Taylor’s 1963 flip as Cleopatra. Gaga sat at her piano within the robe and mentioned, “‘Born This Method’ is every little thing I stand for.”
Every run launched setlist modifications. In 2021, in promotion of a second album with Bennett, Love for Sale, Gaga added “Love for Sale,” “Let’s Do It,” “Do I Love You,” and “You’re the High,” along with “Rags to Riches” and “Mambo Italiano.” In 2023, the revised setlist included “The Greatest Is But to Come,” “Sway,” “Steppin’ Out with My Child,” “It Don’t Imply a Factor (If It Ain’t Acquired That Swing),” and her personal “Silly Love.” “Americano” got here on board in 2024.
Closing night time put a highlight on prolonged solos from the band. Newman unforgettably glided via “The Greatest is But to Come” and “Paparazzi,” demonstrating the extent of what a real grasp can do with a trumpet. Barrett pounded via drum solos and Smith’s work on the keys utterly reinvented the sounds a piano can produce.
The ultimate set earlier than the encore commenced with “La Vie En Rose.” Gaga’s model stands as much as the unique, in contrast to some other try. She carried out the Edith Piaf basic in shadow, a lead into the whispering hang-out of “Unhealthy Romance,” with the articulation of each phrase a dalliance between vice grip and petal mushy.
As Jazz & Piano ended with its final two tunes, Gaga promised the gang, “I’m not going to cease singing jazz … this one’s for you, Tone.”
The second-to-last track, Bennett’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” started with Gaga dropping her mic and belting unamplified to the 5,200-seat theater.
Ending with “I’m tremendous emotional, however there’s no crying in baseball and thanking the viewers for serving to us protect the legacy of jazz. … I’m going to die an previous girl singing this music on this stage.” Gaga then made her means round and shook the fingers of every orchestra member.
All through the five-and-a-half-year residency, numerous pop-up experiences helped to create a whole Gaga universe in Las Vegas.
In Could 2019, the Haus of Gaga mini museum opened alongside the theater. It showcased clothes and niknaks from the singer’s archive, together with the notorious “meat gown.” Donations benefitted the Born This Method Basis, a nonprofit that Gaga and her mom, Cynthia Germanotta, co-founded.
Brian Newman’s “After Darkish” late-night lounge gig debuted at NoMad’s The Library in June 2019. Gaga often popped in to hitch her bandleader on stage within the intimate setting. Newman produced the soundtrack model of “La Vie En Rose” for A Star Is Born and was her bandleader and trumpeter for “Cheek to Cheek.” Each Gaga and Newman have the identical Miles Davis trumpet tattoo on their proper arms, based mostly on a sketch by Bennett.
Whereas ultimate numbers received’t be accessible for just a few months, Jazz & Piano is estimated to have earned greater than $100 million, putting it within the high 10 Las Vegas residencies. This fall, Girl Gaga will star as Harley Quinn in Joker: Folie à Deux and has teased a forthcoming seventh studio album.
