As Lady Gaga reflected on the success of her Chromatica Ball tour, she made a bombshell revelation about the 2022 world tour.
The star revealed that she performed five of the 20 shows on tour with COVID-19 during a Q&A session at the Los Angeles premiere for the Gaga Chromatica Ball concert special, airing on HBO on May 25.
"I did five shows with COVID", she confessed during the session. "I shared it with everyone on my team and I said, 'I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable at work and you don't have to perform and you don't have to work that day, but I'm going to do the show,' because I just didn't want to let all the fans down."
Gaga continued that the reason why she decided to perform despite testing positive, was because she saw that "the fans were all putting themselves in harm's way every day coming to the show. During all my quick changes, I kept going. 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.'" The singer did not clarify which gigs she performed at while she had tested positive.
Fans attending the Q&A cheered at the revelation, particularly as she explained she didn't want to let her fans down. Meanwhile online, Gaga's confession sparked a major debate among Little Monsters.
One person pointed out: "I don't think this is something you can brag about…"
"Ummm why on earth would you reveal that?" Another person commented. "You're just giving yourself backlash because you’re putting the health and safety of not only yourself, but THOUSANDS of people at risk…"
While many people had questions about Gaga's choice, one fan defended her by saying "She is literally hundreds of feet away from the audience anyway… still mother idc".
Someone else countered the fan's defense with a clip of the singer walking through the crowd and singing during her gig in Arnheim, Netherlands. But the fan continued that there was "important context" to the shows.
"The places she has performed to required proof of COVID-19 vaccine in order to get the tickets. Everyone was vaccinated", they claimed, adding: "the shows were in OPEN stadiums and she is hundreds of feet away from the audience. No reported cases from the tour."
Many of Gaga's fans were amazed that the singer was able to perform while allegedly experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
"This is actually very impressive given how much of a toll that virus puts on your body, she’s truly one of our greatest performers", a fan commented. Another concurred: "Body aches, sore throat, coughing, stuffy nose and still put on a show oh Stefani…"
Lady Gaga originally released the Chromatica Ball in 2020, and postponed her tour to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 18 2022, President Joe Biden declared on 60 minutes that he believed the COVID-19 pandemic was "over" in the United States.