Watch Lady Gaga Deliver Astonishing David Bowie Grammy Tribute Medley
Lady Gaga paid tribute to David Bowie with a transformative performance at the 2016 Grammy Awards ceremony. Bowie died last month from a long battle with cancer, with his death coming days after his 69th birthday and release of his final album Blackstar.
Filled with special effects, costume changes and an appearance from Let’s Dance and Black Tie White Noise producer Nile Rodgers, Gaga gave a tribute to Bowie as eclectic as his career. Beginning with “Space Oddity,” Gaga first appeared on-screen with just her head mutating with space-y colors. From there, she moved to a piano featuring hydraulics before performing full choreography to songs like “Fashion,” “Let’s Dance” and “Rebel Rebel.” Rodgers, who also directed the performance, joined in on guitar for the second half of the tribute, which ended with “Heroes.”
Watch the full performance below:
In 2008, Gaga thanked Bowie “for inspiration” in the liner notes of her debut The Fame. The following year, she listed his single “Rebel Rebel” as one of her favorite pop songs of all time in her first Rolling Stone cover story.
“All of the things I went through were on my own quest for an artistic journey to fuck myself up like Warhol and Bowie and Mick, and just go for it,” she explained to RS in 2010 when discussing her approach to mixing trauma with art. “I like to, within moderation, respect that I’m not Mick Jagger or David Bowie, and I don’t just have fans that are a certain age. There are nine-year-olds listening to my music, so I guess I try to be respectful of them if at all possible.”
Last week, Gaga sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl 50. She recently won a Golden Globe for her role on American Horror Story: Hotel and is nominated alongside Diane Warren for Best Original Song at the Oscars.
Lady Gaga David Bowie Tribute
“Space Oddity”
“Changes”
“Ziggy Stardust”
“Suffragette City”
“Rebel Rebel”
“Fashion”
“Fame”
“Under Pressure”
“Let’s Dance”
“Heroes”
The Grammys also posted a behind-the-scenes video on Lady Gaga and Rodgers’ performance.