{"id":330971,"date":"2025-12-23T04:18:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T04:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/330971\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T04:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T04:18:22","slug":"lady-gaga-discusses-harlequin-live-film-being-released-christmas-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/330971\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Gaga Discusses ‘Harlequin Live’ Film, Being Released Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt will be A Very Harlequin Christmas for Lady Gaga<\/a> fans. The singer is announcing today that her long-awaited concert film \u201cLady Gaga in Harlequin Live \u2014 One Night Only\u201d will arrive down fans\u2019 digital chimneys on the night before Christmas, bowing at 4 p.m. PT on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe reveal of the airdate comes on the heels of the project\u2019s premiere at the Grammy Museum<\/a>, which had Gaga participating in an in-depth Q&A with Variety\u2018s Chris Willman about the new film and the album that precipitated it, \u201cHarlequin.\u201d That late 2024 recording is currently up for a Grammy for best traditional pop album, on top of the seven nods her other recent album, \u201cMayhem,\u201d collected going into the looming Feb. 1 ceremony. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe filmed spinoff of \u201cHarlequin\u201d was shot at the Belasco Theatre in downtown L.A. on Sept. 30, 2024, in a post-midnight concert that was received ecstatically by the small congregation of fans who gained entry at the time \u2014 and was documented in a very enthusiastic review from Variety, the only media outlet to cover the show. Then it never came up again before now, being held back just long enough to have nearly fallen into the realm of Little Monster myth.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe addressed the timing of this Wednesday\u2019s surprise release in the Grammy Museum conversation. \u201cI\u2019m feeling like: Why not? We have this thing that\u2019s so special to us, so we\u2019re just really happy to share it with the fans,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a rebellious project. And, by Harlequin standards, Christmas is the perfect time to release something rebellious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFans had wondered if the concert movie might\u2019ve gotten lost amid the \u201cMayhem\u201d of the past year, with that subsequent album and its massive arena tour following so quickly on the heels of \u201cHarlequin.\u201d Her plan, she said, had long been to bring out the much-anticipated film after some sort of pause. \u201cIt was interesting \u2014 when we first saw the footage, we said, \u2018This is not the right time to put this out.\u2019 And we collectively agreed that we would allow the lore of the Belasco performance to bloom with the fans, until it felt like time\u2026 And so this is like a Christmas present.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was just a few blocks from the Grammy Museum at the Belasco 15 months ago when Gaga and a hopping six-piece band performed her then-brand-new \u201cHarlequin\u201d album in its entirety. (Technically, it was actually the next morning, since the semi-secret gig started after midnight\u2026 though exact times were hard to measure, since smartwatches were locked up along with phones.) The raucous show was rapturously received by about a thousand fans who witnessed stripped-down and slightly rocked-out arrangements of songs like \u201cThat\u2019s Entertainment,\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s Life\u201d and \u201cWhen the Saints Go Marching In,\u201d along with a pair of originals that also appeared on the \u201cHarlequin\u201d album. The strange, very theatrical production design added a level of intrigueL Even though she was dipping into material that mostly dated back to the 1930s through \u201960s, Gaga might never have given a more energetic performance in her career, dancing with wild abandon \u2014 while never losing her breath or her perfect pitch \u2014 and seeming to get as many frenetic steps in on a small stage as she soon would working the epic ramps with more structured choreography at Coachella a few months later.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut with not even any photos officially or unofficially released, there was little tangible proof that this veritable Bigfoot sighting of a concert ever happened. Variety\u2018s review ran under a highly promissory headline: \u201cLady Gaga\u2019s Secret Late-Night Performance at L.A.\u2019s Belasco Was Bonkers \u2014 and One of the Best Things She\u2019s Ever Done.\u201d<\/a> And since then, you kind of had to take our word for it.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow she\u2019s pleased to be letting the rest of the world into the early-morning \u201cHarlequin\u201d fever dream.\u201dIt was nice to see you all in here watching it,\u201d Gaga told the crowd after watching the last part of the movie from the wings of the Grammy Museum\u2019s 200-seat Clive Davis Theater \u2014 adding, as if she were as surprised as anyone that it\u2019s going public, \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLady Gaga and Variety\u2019s Chris Willman at the Grammy Museum for the premiere of the \u201cHarlequin Live\u201d film<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulian Dakdouk.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat YouTubers will see Christmas Eve and beyond is a project that defies overly easy characterizations. Its closest kinship is obviously to the two albums she did with the late Tony Bennett \u2014 both of which won the Grammy for best traditional pop album, the category she\u2019s entered in as a solo artist this time \u2014 and her long-running \u201cJazz & Piano\u201d residency in Las Vegas, which also found her taking on pre-rock classics and standards. But the production design of the filmed concert performance could not be further away from the sheer elegance of those presentations. It presents her and her six-piece band in a shockingly disheveled-looking apartment setting, where the window blinds probably haven\u2019t been straight in a few decades, and there\u2019s unmade bedding on a mattress on the floor. The set dressing is messy and shadowy, and yet, performance-wise, Gaga has never seemed more exhilarated.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe idea for the production design for the filming sprang from a photo shoot that Gaga did for the \u201cHarlequin\u201d artwork. But it also sprang from thinking back on the days when she still counted as aspirational, at best, as a performer. The whole concept came together quickly when it was rather spontaneously decided to perform the entire album live.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s so interesting is, I was meant to do that performance as three songs, as just kind of a celebration after the premiere of \u2018Joker.\u2019 And a couple days before, Michael and I were like, \u2018What? We\u2019re just gonna do the whole album\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cI had just filmed the \u2018Disease\u2019 video [for the single from \u2018Mayhem\u2019] a couple weeks before, and I just loved working with Marcell (Rev, the director of photography). He\u2019s this incredible artist, and he gets like right in there. So after doing \u2018Disease,\u2019 we thought, \u2018What if we worked with him on this?\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd once everything came together with the production design, it really came together because of the album art that we shot in Las Vegas while we were there finishing the record, where it was all shot in this dingy apartment. And when I met the guys that I made the record with, some of them 20 years ago, I was living in a dingy apartment on the Lower East Side. That\u2019s where I had all my crazy ideas about anything. So that\u2019s how the emotional and raw quality of how we made it made its way into this performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLady Gaga at the Grammy Museum<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulian Dakdouk.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fact that it was only at the relative last minute that they decided to perform the entire album instead of three songs didn\u2019t mean Gaga felt anything but ready for that. \u201cBefore you sing one of these records in the studio, you gotta like really know it. You can\u2019t be learning it. I learned that also from being in the studio one time with Tony and not being prepared. Big mistake! So now, I will sing these songs hundreds of times before I even record them. And these guys, we know the arrangements. So we kept a lot of it loose. We did, I think, two days of rehearsal before we did this. And the point of the whole thing was to capture it in its rawness with all of the fabric of emotional jazz music. So, no, we didn\u2019t prepare that much. But in a way, I had been preparing for this for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough you won\u2019t hear a huge amount of this in the music, Gaga revealed a perhaps surprising inspiration for the evolution of her jazz music, which she and other players found while sitting around in Las Vegas, after attending her trumpeter Brian Newman\u2019s 1 a.m. club shows following her own residency gigs. In these wee-hours discussions, a different kind of influence came up. \u201cWe actually found our way into \u2018Harlequin,\u2019 I think, through guitar and our shared love of surf punk. And we sort of said, \u2018You know, what if we were to kind of guide some of these productions in that direction?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis rawer approach to taking on the Great American Songbook is also symbolized in elements like having one of her band members do the whole set in a sleeveless tuxedo, baring his tatted-up arms. What would Tony Bennett have made of a wardrobe choice like that, we asked?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTony loved \u2018Artpop,\u2019 so I know Tony would\u2019ve gone, \u2018Wow. Yeah,’\u201d Gaga answered. \u201cOr, someone would\u2019ve gotten fired!\u201d she cheerfully added.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Gaga is being nominated for best traditional pop album on her own for the first time, without being in collaboration with Bennett, she isn\u2019t thinking of it that way. \u201cI\u2019m not in the category alone, I don\u2019t feel, because I guess I\u2019ll always feel like Tony is with me in the category \u2014 and also all these musicians that I\u2019ve been making music with for the last two decades are with me.\u201d She noted some possible irony in the division the \u201cHarlequin\u201d album is entered in. \u201cIn the great American lexicon of these vintage pop songs, to me and to Tony, definitely this category would just be a \u2018pop\u2019 category \u2014 it wouldn\u2019t be a \u2018traditional pop\u2019 category. It\u2019s only over time that what that means changes. But it feels amazing to be nominated for this album, which means so, so much to me. We cared about this music so much and it was such an interesting process, creating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe process was very different than with the two Bennett collaborative albums. \u201cWhen we were in the studio, I was like, \u2018Ben (Benjamin Rice, the co-producer of the \u201cHarlequin\u201d music), why don\u2019t you bring in some trash cans and we\u2019ll use them as a drum kit?\u2019 It was like, what were the ways that we could kind of break the music? Because we were thinking about comic books and jazz, and how could we think about this with humor and with fun in an almost childlike way \u2014 almost immature, or, yeah, a little bit bonkers. That gave way ror some really exciting new renditions. The style of the record really came from a deep relationship that I\u2019ve built with all of these musicians for the last two decades. And, approaching the music in this new way and without Tony there, it was different. Working with Tony, when we would plan stuff, we\u2019d put suits on to go in the studio and be like, \u2018Mr. Bennett, we\u2019d like to play something for you.\u2019 I\u2019d lean into Brian (Newman, one of her co-musical directors) and be like, \u2018Don\u2019t fuck it up, Brian!\u2019 So, this was different. He wasn\u2019t there and it gave way for the album to be pretty rebellious. But he was totally there in spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBennett is there in a little more than just spirit in the \u201cHarlequin\u201d film. As Gaga sings the set\u2019s most understated song, \u201cSmile,\u201d while singing on that dilapidated mattress, the camera catches a tiny black-and-white TV at the bottom of the bed that is playing a repeating black-and-white tape loop of Bennett.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, he loved \u2018Smile,’\u201d Gaga said of the homage. \u201cAnd man, could he sing it, too \u2014 Tony\u2019s version of \u2018Smile\u2019 was my favorite, after Nat King Cole\u2019s. So, having him there, it was one of those wild moments in a stage performance where you\u2019re bringing in a little bit of the real world, with a little bit of a wink. It\u2019s an old video of him; it\u2019s not a video of us together. It wasn\u2019t meant to be a memorial or anything. It was meant to be more about who she might have been thinking about \u2014 which is most certainly true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLady Gaga and Variety\u2019s Chris Willman at the Grammy Museum for the premiere of the \u201cHarlequin Live\u201d film<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulian Dakdouk.<\/p>\n

\n\tGaga sometimes spoke of her persona in the \u201cHarlequin\u201d concert film as if it were a character, using third-person terms like \u201cher\u201d and \u201cthis gal.\u201d But she\u2019s definitely not in character as Harley Quinn, despite the lineage that had most of these songs having been used, in very different styles and arrangements, in the \u201cJoker: Folie \u00e0 Deux\u201d movie. In fact, it seems to have been important to Gaga to recast these songs for her album in a style that is purely hers. During the film, Gaga speaks to the crowd about her own life and feelings, so there\u2019s no strictly Method acting going on. But she is possibly sometimes playing the role of a more innocent, pre-fame Gaga, as when she introduces \u201cThat\u2019s Entertainment\u201d by invoking her 9-year-old self, experiencing music in its most innocent and jubilant mode, without career expectations. It may be that 9-year-old that\u2019s coming out when, at a couple of points, Gaga rips open the pillows on that unmade bed and throws the feathers around.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut things get very un-childlike for what is almost assuredly the most personal moment of the whole performance, when she sings \u201cHappy Mistake,\u201d one of two new and original songs from the \u201cHarlequin\u201d album. Except for the first 30 seconds, the entire song consists of one take, with the camera circling around her on stage as she belts out a number with deeper meanings for her than \u201cThat\u2019s Entertainment,\u201d bangs hanging over her eyes. Afterward, she is clearly teary\u2026 and clearly undistracted by the camera work happening in her immediate vicinity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat song, \u2018Happy Mistake,\u2019 was very much inspired by a time and an era in my life where\u2026 it felt like being happy would be an accident, it felt so impossible. And a lot of my decision-making for all the projects that I was taking on during this time came from a really deep, soulful attraction to wanting to help tell that story of what it feels like to be someone that\u2019s misunderstood in that way. So that song is very meaningful to me. When you write something like that, when you just seem like you\u2019re living in hell\u2026 I think the gift of for me in doing this performance was: I was so happy. \u2026 You are able to appreciate the writing in the song and you get to embrace the arrangement, but you\u2019re not so deeply tormented by what you\u2019re saying that you can\u2019t get it out in that artful way where you can witness yourself. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat that leads me to is, with the camera, I always feel very connected to Marcell when we work together. It\u2019s not the relationship where I go, \u2018Oh, the camera\u2019s here, so I\u2019m gonna point my face like this, because that\u2019s a good angle.\u2019 I don\u2019t think about it that way. It\u2019s more like we\u2019re doing a dance, and we\u2019re in it together, and I know where the lights are and I know where the fans are and I feel the music and I\u2019m telling the story and he\u2019s helping me tell it. So I\u2019d say it\u2019s just an unspoken companionship, and that happens in music, too. And I think I\u2019m just really lucky. I\u2019ve gotten to make some movies in addition to all the other things that I\u2019ve done, and in making \u2018A Star Is Born,\u2019 even, it helps you figure out how to be aware of what we\u2019re all at work to do \u2014 but also to give yourself to the moment and try to tell a story that will hopefully touch somebody. Maybe one person. It\u2019s all that matters. Maybe it\u2019s your mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLady Gaga and Variety\u2019s Chris Willman at the Grammy Museum for the premiere of the \u201cHarlequin Live\u201d film<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulian Dakdouk.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn audience member named Edith took the mic during an audience-questions portion of the Q&A, saying that even the sequencing of the songs in the \u201cHarlequin\u201d album and film seemed to tell a story she found personally moving. \u201cI was there at the \u2018Harlequin\u2019 show and it was one of the best nights of my life,\u201d said the young woman. \u201cThat album really means a lot to me, because often I feel misunderstood\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGaga offered an extensive and detailed answer to the woman\u2019s ultimate question about how she sequences albums, saying she will spend months pondering the song order on every record to produce just the right emotional arc. But she hadn\u2019t lost sight of the original crux of Edith\u2019s question. Three minutes into this fairly technical answer, Gaga blurted: \u201cCan I give you a hug?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGaga gave props to her fianc\u00e9 and creative partner, Michael Polansky; on the \u201cHarlequin\u201d concert film, they share credit as its creative directors and executive producers.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have been working together closely for a while now, but this was our first musical project together, and it was amazing. I think what we all need the most is somebody that believes in the thing that we wanna say. And I think we also both have a soft spot for people that feel like misunderstood, and this album and this performance very much orbits this lady\u201d who feels that way. \u201cSo it was an incredibly beautiful process \u2014 being in the studio recording, planning everything, putting this (film) together, every single aspect we do as a team\u2026 One of the things I love about working with Michael is that he has this closeness with me where he sees my artistry and my musicianship in its infancy, in its raw form. So whether I want to overthink it or someone else wants to overthink it, or somebody wants to come in and go, \u2018What does it all mean? What\u2019s the strategy behind it? How will we market it?,\u2019 he will help in every possible way to make sure that the purity of it is not destroyed. And we do that together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the lighter side, an audience member in the front row shared, \u201cWe had an amazing idea last night that, for your wedding, you should come down the aisle in Volantis, the flying dress\u201d (a legendary outfit dating back to an \u201cArtpop\u201d event in 2013).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat would be dangerous,\u201d Gaga laughed, and that was all there was to say about that.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there was plenty more to say about jazz, even as, at one point, minutes into an answer Gaga apologized: \u201cSorry to ramble about music\u201d \u2014 before remembering that if there\u2019s anywhere to go on a pure music ramble, it\u2019s at the Grammy Museum.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is more of it being created, even now, with the Mayhem Ball tour \u2014 which began five months ago \u2014 scheduled to resume Jan. 21 in Osaka and then finally wrap up at Madison Square Garden April . <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is extremely helpful, wonderful, and amazing to have a partner that I can make music with. So we set up a studio in all the rooms that we\u2019re in (on tour), and we record in the hotel. There\u2019s a piano and mic, and so whenever it feels like it\u2019s a good time to make music, then we just do it. I think when I was in my early twenties, I was this very Method human being where, with every project that I took on, I was always living in it 24\/7. And I think some of my age and experience has taken me to this new time in my life where I feel like I can approach it as the creator and the artist and not be lost in it. So when I get on stage for the Mayhem Ball, I am fully in that for the two hours and 40 minutes I\u2019m on stage. And every day I go in early to the venue and do unique arrangements for the show to keep it fresh and fun and interesting for the fans. But then when it\u2019s over, I drop it. And that leaves a lot more space for me to then write something new, because it frees my mind up. So I take care of myself as much as I can on the road, and I\u2019m finding that that\u2019s leading to a lot of songwriting, which is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaking stock of the setting again, Gaga said, \u201cI\u2019m feeling very grateful that the Grammys recognized this album that\u2019s making me feel very celebrated, as a female in music. And this project for me is a really special way to gave my fans some insight into who I want to become, as a jazz musician. This will not be my last jazz record. So it\u2019s just exciting to keep going. And I do feel no matter where music takes me, it\u2019s the one thing that\u2019s pretty insatiable in me \u2014 it will never be enough. Because even when I\u2019m in my nineties, I will never have gone through every genre and figured it all out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLady Gaga in Harlequin Live \u2014 One Night Only\u201d is a Morningview Production, with Gaga and Polansky serving as executive producers. The two share creative direction credit with Todd Tourso and Mel Roy of mtla.studio. Marcell Rev was director of photography Marcell R\u00e9v, and musical direction is credited Gaga and her band members Brian Newman, Tim Stewart, and Alex Smith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will be A Very Harlequin Christmas for Lady Gaga fans. The singer is announcing today that her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,42593,3303,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-330971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-grammy-museum","10":"tag-lady-gaga","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}