Right now, Lady Gaga is out here bonding with all our finest stadium rock legacy acts. That’s nothing new for Gaga, who’s practically a stadium rock legacy artist herself, but you’re really making a statement when you perform with the Rolling Stones and U2 in the same seven says. Last week, the Stones celebrated their album release with a surprise New York club show, and Gaga joined the band, singing their new collaboration “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven” for the first time. Then, last night, Gaga jumped onstage to perform with U2 at the mega-expensive new Las Vegas venue Sphere.
U2 kicked off their much-hyped residency at Sphere last month. The show has been a huge success, and the residency has been extended. U2 are playing their classic Achtung Baby, as well as assorted extra bangers, every night. Because the whole Sphere presentation is so elaborate, U2 haven’t really altered their live show until now. In joining U2 onstage, Lady Gaga essentially became the second artist to perform at this venue.
During U2’s Sphere set, there’s a moment where the band pauses Achtung Baby and plays a few acoustic versions of tracks from Rattle And Hum. Last night, they switched things up. Bono told the crowd that he’d tried to write “All I Want Is You” from a woman’s perspective but that he’d never sung it with a woman. Then Gaga, dressed a lot like Bono, came to the stage and sang the song with the band. From that, they transitioned directly into “Shallow,” the huge A Star Is Born duet that Gaga and Bradley Cooper released in 2018.
Gaga stuck around for another classic U2 ballad, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and they worked a bit of Primal Scream’s almighty “Movin’ On Up” into that one. Gaga sounded amazing during all of this, and she really made the case that she should take the venue over whenever the U2 residency ends. There are really only a few artists who would make sense in that space, and Gaga is one of them. Below, watch fan footage of that mini-set.