The Gaga Experience -- Born This Way Ball in Manila [★]

May 24, 2012

Oh yeah baby! I was part of history!

Lady Gaga's concert is the first ever event to be held in the newly-built SM Mall of Asia Arena! :D This is one of the reasons why I wanted to go to this concert. I was really curious on how the arena would look like and how it would compare to the SMART Araneta Coliseum. I am not sure but they say the Arena has a larger seating capacity than Araneta.

OUR GAGA TICKETS! YAY!

My friend and I purchased general admission tickets. It's the cheapest in the line, but it's still somehow expensive (for us). Well, it's THE Lady Gaga anyway. I'm telling you, the concert was worth every penny, even more. She was that good. :D I'll talk about that later.


It turns out GenAd pips are designated on the 5th floor of the arena. It gave us a nice top view of the stage.

The BTW Ball Stage (with the filthy rich people who could manage to avail the mosh pit tickets *bitter* xD)

By the way, this photo is zoomed in. The stage did not look this near from our spot in the fifth floor. It was really like this...



 I really thought that thing on stage was a piano. Later on, I learned that it was for the front act.

BEHIND THE CONCERT SCENES

Anyway, here are some interesting events before the Gaga concert started. A guy (sitting a few rows behind us) asked his special girl to become his girlfriend. He even had a large placard that says "[insert girl's name], WILL YOU BE MY LITTLE MONSTER?" in bold black letters. Gratefuly, the girl said yes and then they hugged each other. Some of the crowd noticed the commotion and happily cheered them. 

This is the guy who proposed.
(I was not able to capture the moment because I was SO SLOW in fetching my camera. Mental note: always have the camera ready to take the shot!)

Also, there was this guy... erm gay... who dressed up for the event.

The (bold) back view of the little monster
Well actually he was not the only one. There are many of them who went to the concert in full costume. I must say they are really die-hard fans of Gaga.


FRONT ACT BEGINS!

Gaga's front act is Zedd, a club music DJ (not sure how to call him). Boy, he was amazing! He rocked the whole arena with his music!

PARTEEEY TIME!!!
Everyone was jumping up their seats. It felt like the arena was one big party club! :D

He performed a series of music remixes of songs (including some of Adele's) for roughly 30 minutes. After some time, I got tired of dancing with the beat. I want to see Gaga already. xD


AND THE MAIN SHOW STARTS...

The castle was unveiled to the audience. At our point of view, it looked like those barbie castles in polly pockets.

The medieval castle of Gaga
Lady Gaga appeared on the stage riding a horse! Together with her dancers carrying flags, Gaga walked on the stage like a real queen treated with royalty.

Here are the songs that she performed for the night (in consecutive order):

Government Hooker
Born This Way
Black Jesus
Bloody Mary
Bad Romance
Judas
 Fashion of His Love
Just Dance
Love Game
Telephone
Heavy Metal Lover
Bad Kids
Hair
You and I
Electric Chapel
Americano
Poker Face
Alejandro
Paparazzi
Scheiße

Encore:
Edge of Glory
Marry the Night


I was at awe on the number of costume changes that she did throughout the show. She was amazing. It was a total performance, from start to the very end. I knew she has a great voice but heck, she sounded even better live! She was able to flawlessly belt the high notes in her last two songs. She's also a good dancer! I don't know what sport she does (I'm sure she has one) because she has a very well-toned body.

Gaga riding this weird looking belly-shaped inflatable
(Sorry for the crappy quality of the picture. This is only what my cam managed to capture.)

She climbed down behind the balloon structure then something ripped the belly open and she appeared again. She was literally 'born' at that moment. Appropriately, she sings Born This Way after.

Blurry Gaga. :))

creepy Gaga Hologram

blurry Gaga again ><

 I liked the way she glided during Bloody Mary. She was wearing a long white gown and her head was veiled. She must be riding some kind of scooter under the gown.

Everyone was dancing with every song. I danced the hardest during Judas. I know this is her most controversial song, but this is my favorite (because of an inside joke between me and my sister xD).

Gaga said 'Kamusta!' to the delight of the crowd. She altered the intro of Scheiße and instead she said,

"I don't speak Tagalog, But I can if you'd like."
 I like the way she connected with the crowd. She spoke strong statements like "I am not a creature of your government" [pertaining to the protests and the threat of being thrown to jail] before she sang Judas. Everyone was moved by her speech on accepting each other for who they are, then singing Hair while playing the piano (I cried during that part, along with everyone else in the crowd I think). I also remember her say,

"[paraphrased] We are not non-conformists. We are rebels. Non-conformists don't do anything with the things that they don't like, whereas rebels take action."

Honestly, I think she's a good person deep deep down. She just have a weird way of showing it. Also, I felt her genuine love and concern for all the gays. Besides, the gay crowd are her first supporters during the early days of her being a musician in the bars of New York City (yes I did my research :p). She had a tough start in her career there and then.

But I must say, she's really talented. I totally agree on what blogger Chico Garcia stated on his site: "Take away all the fancy clothes and the weirdness, there's a real singer in her." She deserves all her Grammy awards.

Anyway, good luck to the rest of your Born This Way tour, Gaga. Thank you for giving us a great great show in Manila! :D

~o~

Here is Lady Gaga's moving performance of Hair in BTW Manila.


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2 (mga) komento

  1. Thanks for sharing this, that's so cool :D I'll see Gaga in 19 days from now. I am SO excited.
    All Paris is waiting for her <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Anonymous:
    I'm sure by now you've already seen her. Lady Gaga is really one great performer. :D

    ReplyDelete

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