Before there was Lady Gaga, there was Stefani Germanotta, an NYU dropout trying to break into the music industry by performing gigs around New York's Lower East Side bars. Gaga returned to her roots last night, performing songs from her new album Joanne, out today, to an intimate crowd at The Bitter End. "I've been playing here since I was 15 years old," she told the crowd. "This is where I started."
It was stop number two on her #DiveBarTour with Bud Light and, compared to the theatrical spectacles she's put on in the past, this was stripped way down. She performed the songs "Joanne," "Diamond Heart, "A-Yo," "Million Reasons," and "Another Day." The highlight of the night, by far, was "Grigio Girls."
"I wrote this song about my dear friend Sonja, who's here with us tonight," Lady Gaga said before starting the song. "And she's been so kind to let me share this story with the world.... Sonja has stage IV cancer. And it's in her brain. And in her lungs. And in her breasts. Look at her face. She's in such good spirits, and she's so beautiful."
She cowrote the song with Hillary Lindsey, who joined her on stage. Gaga continued to explain its backstory:
"We were writing it because we were laying around one night and all the girls had gotten together, but Sonja wasn't there because sometimes we needed to get together without her, because we didn't want her to see us cry. We wanted to be strong for you always. So we formed this pact with each other that, when we needed to, we'd call together the 'Grigio Girls' and cry it out. So this one's for you. I hope this message spreads all around the world. Spread love and compassion and healing to people around you, and to not be afraid of deep things, because people are suffering and they need to know that you care. This one's for you. I love you."
In a particularly moving moment, Gaga jumped down from the stage to sing directly to Sonja and hold her hand.
Watch Gaga do "Grigio Girls" at the 29:54 mark in the video below (and try not to cry):
After performing inside the bar, Gaga also took to the balcony to continue the show for fans waiting outside.
What a night.
