Lady Gaga stops her own show in unexpected onstage moment
An unexpected onstage pause marked Lady Gaga’s long-awaited Brisbane return. READ THE REVIEW
Lady Gaga’s gargantuan Brisbane stadium spectacular came to a sudden, unexpected pause on Tuesday night, not because of a technical fault or costume mishap, but a sneezing fit that briefly brought one of the world’s most tightly choreographed pop productions to a standstill.
Three quarters of the way through her almost three-hour Mayhem Ball show at Suncorp Stadium, the pop superstar stopped the show moments after striking the opening notes of her 2024 hit Die With a Smile, seated at the piano at the end of the runway, following a brief sneezing fit.
The 39-year-old motioned for her band to stop as laughter rippled through the crowd, before a member of her crew hurried on stage with water and a tissue.
The singer waved to fans, greeted the stadium with a cheerful “hi,” and giggled as the interruption drew cheers rather than concern.
“Sorry,” she said, before apologising again and joking to the crowd: “Sorry for my sneezes — at least you know I’m singing.”
After restarting the song from the top, Gaga completed the performance without further interruption.
The moment lasted barely a few minutes, yet punctured what had otherwise been an almost surgically precise, high-concept production — a rare glimpse of vulnerability and spontaneity inside a show operating on blockbuster-scale perfection.
And it was that contrast — the smallest of human interruptions inside the biggest of pop spectacles — that somehow made the night even bigger.
Because rewind to the beginning, and this show began in absolute fury.
“Brisbane, put your f*cking paws up,” Gaga said.
With that command, Lady Gaga didn’t so much begin her Mayhem Ball show at Suncorp Stadium as detonate it.
From the first operatic seconds of Bloody Mary into the feral pulse of Abracadabra, the energy was immediate and overwhelming.
This was the most high-octane crowd I have ever seen at Suncorp, hands in the air on command every 30 seconds like we were being willingly hypnotised.
The wristband lights pulsed like a living organism. The pit became a throbbing heart.
What unfolded over the next three hours felt less like a concert and more like a polished Broadway musical colliding head-on with a Hollywood blockbuster.
Gothic renaissance ruins. Spiral staircases. Castles, skulls, skeletons and sandboxes. Across an epic 32-song setlist, Gaga tore through two decades of hits and reinvention without a single lull — a rare feat for a stadium performance of this scale.
She emerged in a ten-foot-tall dress, later clawed her way out of sand beside a skeleton for Disease, before returning transformed in chrome shoulder armour and silver crutches for a reimagined Paparazzi, dragging a seemingly endless illuminated train behind her.
At times there were 16 dancers on stage alongside her full band, pyrotechnics firing relentlessly as strobes pushed sensory overload to euphoric extremes.
The chaos was precision-engineered.
The costumes immaculate.
The story arc deliberate.
Gaga shredded on electric guitar during Garden of Eden, telling Brisbane “we didn’t come here to f*ck spiders,” before later gliding down the stadium aisle in a Venetian gondola for Shallow.
She theatrically ‘beheaded’ her Poker Face alter ego during Poker Face with a chilling “off with her head,” before descending deeper into the show’s gothic dreamscape.
Vocally, she was untouchable — soaring through one of the most demanding setlists of her career without strain or slip.
As the night wore on, the spectacle gave way to something rawer and more personal.
Gaga paused to reflect on her 11-year absence from Australia, scanning the crowd as her voice wavered.
“I can’t believe I’m here,” she said, visibly holding back tears.
“I haven’t been here in so long … and I’m looking out at all of you, and some of you are all grown up.”
She spoke candidly about the past 20 years of her career, her gratitude for the fans who have stood by her through every reinvention, and her hope for the next 20 still to come.
Sitting at the piano, she admitted that for much of the show she hadn’t had time to fully take it in — before stopping, overwhelmed by the moment.
“Now that I’m sitting here,” she said, her eyes glistening, “man, am I grateful.”
The emotion carried into an aching rendition of The Edge of Glory, which she dedicated to her Brisbane fans — particularly those who have had to say goodbye.
At one point, she halted the show to ensure a fan in the mosh pit received water, before leaning toward the barricade to softly reassure a young woman in tears: “You cry, baby girl.”
It was intimacy on a stadium scale.
By the encore, a stripped-back How Bad Do U Want Me performed makeup-free in a leather jacket and a beanie, Gaga collapsed to the stage at the song’s end before being lifted to her feet by her dancers.
She gathered the full cast for a final theatre-style group bow, hugged her band tightly, then remained alone under the lights, waving slowly to every corner of the stadium.
“I love you so much,” she said, fighting back tears, before one final bow.
I’ve seen countless shows at Suncorp Stadium. This was the best.
A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle that somehow flew by despite running close to three hours, the ultimate flex of pacing, storytelling and command.
And for all its flawless choreography, million-dollar sets and operatic excess, it was a sneezing fit that captured the essence of the night.
Even at her most monumental, Lady Gaga is still gloriously human.
Lady Gaga’s full Brisbane set list:
Act I: Of Velvet And Vice
■ Bloody Mary (shortened; alternative operatic version preceded by a pre-recorded operatic intro)
■ Abracadabra (alternative partially acapella intro)
■ Judas (contains elements of “Abracadabra”)
■ Aura (shortened; contains elements of “Judas” and “Scheiße”)
■ Scheiße (shortened; extended intro with elements of “Judas” and “Aura”)
■ Garden of Eden (extended operatic & orchestral intro; Lady Gaga played guitar)
■ Poker Face (extended operatic & orchestral intro; “Off With Her Head” operatic & orchestral outro)
Act II: And She Fell Into A Gothic Dream
■ Perfect Celebrity(shortened; extended intro)
■ Disease(extended intro)
■ Paparazzi(alternative version; extended intro & outro)
■ LoveGame(shortened; extended intro)
■ Alejandro(shortened)
■ The Beast(Lady Gaga on guitar after the second chorus)
Act III: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name
■ Killah (extended intro & outro)
■ Zombieboy (extended intro & outro)
■ The Dead Dance(extended intro)
■ LoveDrug
■ Applause (shortened; extended intro)
■ Just Dance (shortened; alternative version; extended outro
■ Wake Her Up! (elements of “Abracadabra (Cirkut Remix)”)
Act IV: Every Chessboard Has Two Queens
■ Shadow of a Man (extended intro)
■ Kill for Love (shortened)
■ Summerboy (shortened; Lady Gaga on guitar)
■ Born This Way (extended intro)
■ Million Reasons (extended intro containing elements of “Tears” by Giorgio Moroder and “Abracadabra”)
■ Shallow (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper song) (alternative version)
■ Die With a Smile(Solo)
■ Rain on Me (Full band with Lady Gaga playing along on piano)
■ The Edge of Glory (Acoustic on piano)
■ Vanish Into You
Finale: Eternal Aria of The Monster Heart
■ Bad Romance
■ Encore:How Bad Do U Want Me
■ Free Woman (Lady Gaga sang the chorus; tour debut)
■ Government Hooker (Played after she bowed out)
Originally published as Lady Gaga stops her own show in unexpected onstage moment
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