Lady Gaga reinvents herself as a classy jazz singer: are you buying it?

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You know how Lady Gaga is barely a thing these days? You know how her last two studio albums have screwed the pooch, so to speak? You know how she’s spent money hand over fist, indulging in every coked-up fantasy and daydream she’s ever had? Yeah, well Gaga needs money. She needs to sell something, somewhere. And so she’s doing what many artists do when they need money: she’s releasing a jazz album. Seriously. So many artists go that route when their pop albums begin to fail – they either do jazz standards or they “go country.” Anyway, Gaga recorded a live show with Tony Bennett last night:

When Lady Gaga recalls her first meeting with golden-throated crooner Tony Bennett, she still sounds impressed. She had just performed a set of pop hits and a cover of Nat King Cole’s “Orange Colored Sky” – “a jazz song,” she points out – at the Robin Hood Foundation benefit gala in New York City in 2011, when she got word he wanted to see her after the show. “He heard me sing that song, and he asked to meet me,” she says now. “I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, Tony Bennett’s here.’ And I was so nervous. I fixed my hair, and my mom was fixing her makeup. We went back to meet him, and he said, ‘Do you want to do a jazz album together?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course I do.’ And we were fast friends and friends ever since.”

Last night, Gaga and Bennett walked side-by-side down a red carpet, with the former wearing a décolleté black dress and the latter dressed in a tux and ear-to-ear smile, in New York City prior to singing together at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The concert, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, will air on PBS Great Performances this fall, and it preceded the announcement of Cheek to Cheek, the singers’ album of classic jazz standards that is also coming out in autumn.

Although Bennett had reportedly told a French website that Gaga had written new material for the album, specifically a song called “Paradise,” Gaga told Rolling Stone on the red carpet that the record would consist solely of standards, at least at this point. “It’s all songs from the great American songbook,” she says. “How did we pick the songs, Tony?”

“It’s all the great songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, all the greatest composers,” Bennett says. “No other country has ever given the rest of the world so many magnificent songs, and they’re gonna live forever. Wait ’til you find out when she sings those songs.”

Gaga’s Cheek to Cheek collaborator sees something else in his foil. “She phrases like I phrase,” Bennett says on the carpet. “She’s a wonderful singer. Everybody knows and loves her very much. I think when they hear this album that we’re doing, they’re going to say, ‘We had no idea that she sings that well.'”

[From Rolling Stone]

Gaga does have a voice and she can sing properly. So, I have no doubt about the technical proficiency of Gaga’s jazz recordings. I also don’t blame her at all for wanting to hang out with Tony Bennett, who is by far one of the coolest people in the world. But this is all about money and Gaga’s fading fame. She’s grasping to reinvent herself yet again and I really don’t believe the little monsters give a sh-t any more.

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Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.

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48 Responses to “Lady Gaga reinvents herself as a classy jazz singer: are you buying it?”

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  1. Kiddo says:

    Yeah, she’s talented. I am so sick of autotune, I’m almost more inclined to enjoy the sounds of passing sirens, instead, so I’d give it a chance.

    • don't kill me i'm french says:

      +1

    • ray says:

      i saw her at radio 1 big weekend a while ago and she sang orange coloured sky and i thought it was just so much better than anything else she was doing.

    • Jessiebes says:

      Yeah me too.

      • TheOneandOnlyOnly says:

        Always spot on comments Jayna – don’t you need soulfulness to be a jazz singer? Kind of disappointed that a legend like Tony Bennett is cuddling up to an average overmarketed pop star. He’s so much more than she’ll ever be, and she’s too self-absorbed to see it.

  2. Annie says:

    Am I buying it? Nope. Everything this woman does is just for money and attention and applause, NOTHING comes from within with her.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      This is hardly a new thing for Gaga. Didn’t she do a jazz Thanksgiving special a couple of years ago? Didn’t she also do a song on one of Tony Bennett’s albums a few years ago? She used to do “jazz-ish” versions of her singles live. She does leap at trends, but jazz seems to be something that has been a part of her consistently.

  3. kri says:

    This is better than seeing her crawl out of a placenta covered in donuts and surrounded by 50 back-up dancers dressed as zebras. At least she is trying to sing and not make us all victims of her “artistic vision”.

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      Ha ha…+1

    • Annie says:

      Eh, she probably just read about how sick and tired everyone is of seeing her dressed as a zebra striped placenta covered in donuts, so in her desperation decided to try this. Time will tell, maybe it will turn out to be something but I bet she’s still as phony as ever.

  4. Eleonor says:

    I’ve seen her singing The Lady is a tramp and she was damn good in it.
    Too bad it’s Gaga we’re talking

  5. Petee says:

    Don’t buy it either.She is desperate.Her career is at a complete halt.Yes she does have talent but she tarnished it.

  6. Zee says:

    I think this is actually a good move for her. It’s been suggested that she go this route and or maybe try Broadway by a few music journalists. Her place in the pop world is perilous and she’ll never be back to the fame she had circa 2010-2012…If she tones it down and explores other paths I could see her having a long if low key career versus a short and flashy one

  7. Jayna says:

    Her last two albums didnt screw the pooch. Artpop only sold a couple of million worldwide. But Born This Way sold a lot even taking away the 99 cent deal the first week that bumped from 600 000 first week sales to a million . Worldwide she sold like 6 million. I would call Born This Way a hit album. Artpop not so much but still didn’t bomb like Christina Aguilera.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      I thought the same thing. Artpop didn’t do great, but Born This Way sold VERY well, even if it wasn’t a great album.

  8. lisa says:

    i actually buy this more than i buy a lot of her prev incarnations

    i like her unplugged music and i liked her thanksgiving special

  9. manda says:

    Wow, that was way harsh, Tai. I think that if she wasn’t talented, she wouldn’t have been able to get the gig. I heard some snippets, and it sounds great. Not totally my thing, but if she gets some fans that hadn’t ever considered her, then that’s great for her. I don’t see why she should be criticized for wanting to make money or hold on to her fame.

    • Jayna says:

      Fans of a jazz album still aren’t going to buy the lackluster, basic Artpop. They will buy the Tony Bennett/Gaga dust album just like they bought his other duet albums but will not go buy Artpop nor be fans of her career, just her jazz album with Tony.

  10. TheCountess says:

    It’s smart of her. She *is* a good singer and pianist. It would salvage her career to just forget trying to be Madonna 2.0 and start lighting up those torch songs with her vocals.

  11. Susannah says:

    I’m not one bit surprised and encourage her to reinvent herself in a better mode. Had her in high school as a counselor, and we all knew that her voice was so strong that she could have trained for opera, musical theater, or jazz. She had been playing piano from a very early age and writing her own music since middle school.
    We were disappointed with the glitzy route she chose. She left her early admission to NYU Tisch School of the Arts after a year because they would not let her record or have club dates. The rest is recent history. I’m glad she’s taking another tack, and wish she would resume her college education. (Probably not.). Sing on withnTomy, Stefani!

  12. dorothy says:

    She finally realized the circus get-ups were not working? Good, she looked ridiculous and it’s was out dated. Now if she’ll just sing and not rely on “props” instead of talent.

    • Santolina says:

      Yes, I think she needs to strip away the artifice and get down to what’s authentic. She’s got the talent and charisma to express it. Now, she needs to find the courage to go deep and dredge up what’s real. Audiences will know it when they see it. I wish her luck.

  13. arock says:

    lady gaga, meh. it always has to be a “thing” with her and its so tiresome. im impressed with tony bennet. he must be up in his 80s and still activily performing.

  14. endlesscircles says:

    I could not STAND this chick. BUT girl can sing, period. I think this is a great avenue for her. I hope she continues to live in this space rather than pop.

  15. lunchcoma says:

    I think she should have done this a couple of years ago, and I’m glad to see she’s doing it now. I think she’s lost most of the Little Monsters, but I think she can get her career back on track in a more sensible way if she sticks to this and her next album is actually good.

  16. Lizzie K says:

    Eh, America is the place for second chances. If she can sing and gives up all the shock schlock, I’d be willing to try a jazz album.

    • Jayna says:

      She’s not giving up her pop career and songs and changing three times a day. This is a side project. She has said she’s proud of ArtPop and that some people don’t get her artistic vision and she makes music for herself. Many of her little monsters think Artpop has songs too deep for the GP they call us or too weird for us peasants ignoring the fact the songs were basic. They don’t get greats like Bowie were revered because their over-the-topimage didn’t overshadow their
      brilliant music and knew when to move on from personas like Ziggy Stardust. Weird lyrics alone dont necessarily make a great deep song. Gaga seems to have forgotten it takes more than that to create great music.

  17. TX says:

    Im glad she’s reinventing herself in a more authentic way. Maybe now she’ll see the value of her talent, instead of bogging it down with BS “art”

  18. Julie says:

    Am I the only person who doesn’t like her voice? I get that she’s technically a good singer, she doesn’t over sing or strain, but I don’t really like the sound of her voice.

    • Lauraq says:

      While I don’t agree with you (I hate the persona and the auto-tuned songs, but I really enjoy her raw voice), I understand. Like, I realize that Mary Lambert is a good singer with a beautiful voice, but for some reason I can’t stand it, even though I *know* it’s good. I know some people felt the same way about Amy Lee.

  19. Jaded says:

    IMHO you don’t just decide overnight to “become a jazz singer”. It takes years of dedication to the genre to make it, to study and practice and really feel the music, to understand the techniques and inflection and nuance, otherwise you just sound like another bland jazz wannabe like Rod Stewart and a bunch of others who see it as a way to make quick money. It’s like Tony Bennett suddenly deciding to do rap. Ain’t gonna work.

  20. Happy21 says:

    I don’t know what her goal is this time around. I’m glad she is going to try to make money off of her voice as opposed to her gimmicks. The girl can sing. I love her voice but get so tired of her shtick.

    I have bought all of her albums.
    I thought The Fame was by far her best – I could listen to every single song on it over and over again and enjoy it.
    I bought the Fame Monster and felt almost the same. It was good.
    I bought Born this Way but only could listen to about 80% of the songs on it, the rest I had to skip, just couldn’t do it. I’m not too sure what her motivation was but some of the songs were just outright stupid.
    I received Applause as a gift for Christmas. I listened to it all the way through twice and it was 90% terrible. The lyrics were awful, the beats were made to be catchy but the songs were just dumb.
    I’d buy this to hear Gaga sing. I really think she can pull that off.

    I’ve felt similarly to Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey in years past. Christina has an amazing voice and should just focus on her voice and maybe doing some contemporary stuff instead of trying to make it big in the pop world. She just seems too try hard there. Same with Mariah Carey. She was big time pop in the early-mid 90’s when that was the type of music that was popular but in later years I feel embarrassed for her that she tries to be hip or cool. It just doesn’t work. She has a beautiful voice though and I’m sure if she just sang songs that showed her talent, she’d be just as successful.

  21. Mean Hannah says:

    For non “jazz” musicians, this is an easy way to make an impact in the marketplace. It doesn’t take a lot of sales, in pop music numbers, to top the charts. I wish Tony Bennett would stop doing this shit – it’s straight up holiday money grab for him.

    I never could stand Gaga – her and her music – but this is probably a bit closer to what she would have done if she wasn’t such a fame monster. She might have had a shot at longevity, too.

  22. Jay says:

    If she sold the album under the name Stefani Germanotta I might believe it. 🙂

  23. Sozual says:

    Oh please! She deserves props for not doing some shock crap. Who are all these artists doing jazz. There are maybe a couple of country revamps, but not much.

  24. Jessica says:

    However this isn’t the first time Gaga has done Jazz so how is it for the fame and money? She sang Jazz as a young girl, she’s did many jazz covers and she has worked with Tony Bennett before. It seems pretty genuine to me, except all of this wasn’t mentioned in the article. I wonder why?

  25. Faith says:

    I saw a picture of her yesterday and all I could think was “NO WIREHANGERS.” very Joan Crawford-esque look I like it.

  26. Bread and Circuses says:

    Well… She has reinvented herself as a jazz artist *today*. Tomorrow she may reinvent herself as a Rubik’s cube made of flowers and teaspoons, but that said, anything she does that gets using her powers for good (music) instead of evil (famewhoring) is fine by me.

  27. Fan says:

    Why not. She has beautiful voice with good volume.

  28. Pepsi Presents...Coke says:

    I’ve never seen a hairline like that before.

  29. Ella says:

    I’m so sick of everything being about image, and our judgments about what kind of person we think someone is. I don’t really know what Lady Gaga is like as a person, nor do I care. I’m not going to base my like or dislike of her music on that. That’s just as dumb as liking something because it’s popular — or not liking something because it’s gone mainstream. Bottom line is, I’m probably not going to seek out Lady Gaga’s jazz album, but if I happen to hear it and it’s good, which wouldn’t totally surprise me since she IS talented … then I’d definitely give it a shot. Why not? Music should be about music, not your opinion of the person making it.

    • Jayna says:

      I agree. People act like she would be okay if she stopped dressing outlandishly and did proper music. I am no fan of jazz, but all of Tony’s duet albums have been good with singers and I think this one will be great. She is still dressing outlandishly for this album promo, so those who expect it to stop are wrong.

      I have no problem with Gaga dressing outlandishly. It’s just that she does it three times a day and it’s become predictable. Overkill. But more than anything is she put out an average album with subpar lyrics and melodies and hooks, not living up to the hype of some great tunes she put out earlier. So she can put lipstick on a pig all she wants for ArtPop with all the promo she did referencing art, but the songs were basic and many were dated and many were unfinished sounding with only a few great ones. In this case her outlandish costumes did overshadow the music, because the music didn’t hold up.

      And I don’t see this as anything more than he asked her to do the album and she did because she enjoys that music and loves him. It’s not her trying to save her career. She likes her pop career just fine/. It won’t change her career as far as all of a sudden giving up her pop/rock/electronica music career. I hope not. I just hope she puts out a better, more melodic album next time.

  30. nicegirl says:

    Yes, I am totally buying it. She has an awesome voice and I think she is gonna kill it with music legend Tony Bennett. I just saw a piece on the Today Show about this upcoming album and they sound amazing!