Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden
Encyclopedia
Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden is a 2011 concert special documenting the February 21 and 22, 2011 shows of American pop singer Lady Gaga
's The Monster Ball Tour
. Filmed at Madison Square Garden
in Gaga's hometown of New York City, the two-hour special was produced by HBO and first broadcast on the channel on May 7, 2011, a day after Gaga's last date of The Monster Ball Tour. It was released November 21, 2011 on DVD
and Blu-ray
.
Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden features concert footage as well as pre-concert and backstage content. The special received positive reviews; critics praised Gaga's performance yet doubted her sincerity during her on-stage rambling and in pre-concert scenes. They also noted similarities to Madonna
's 1991 documentary Truth or Dare
. The special was nominated for five awards at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
winning one – Outstanding Picture Editing for a Special (Single or Multi-Camera).
" while preparing to take the stage. Full-color footage of the concert (shot on February 21 and 22, 2011) is then seen, interspersed with black-and-white backstage footage. The special ends with another black-and-white backstage scene where Gaga and her backup singers perform "Born This Way
" a capella.
, the special was watched by 1.2 million viewers. It received positive reviews from critics. Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald
wrote, "[B]etween the orgy of visuals—stripper strobes, androgynous dancers and a very loose, X-rated 'Wizard of Oz
' theme—we get some great song and dance numbers: 'Poker Face
', 'Paparazzi
' and 'Bad Romance
'. These are amazing hits, club-thumping tracks that define joy and sadness for a generation of suburban teens and the urban disenfranchised." However, he felt that the show's non-concert content was not genuine, and found the special to be similar to Madonna
's 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare
. The A.V. Club
s Genevieve Koski gave the special a B+ rating, claiming that Gaga "proves that she is a performer" and that "she puts on a show", though she felt that the concert was overly emotional and artistically ambitious, and that Gaga's on-stage banter was slightly annoying. Koski also compared the special to the Madonna documentary. Paul Schrodt of Slant Magazine
was more critical in his review, though he gave it a 2.5-star (out of 4) rating. While he positively called Gaga's performances outrageous and "occasionally fierce", he questioned Gaga's authenticity, both on stage and in the pre-concert scenes. Ultimately, he wrote, "Unsurprisingly, HBO's Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden raises more questions about Stefani Germanotta [Gaga's birth name] than it answers, which is probably as it should be."
The special received five nominations at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
. It was nominated for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special; Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special; Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special; Outstanding Picture Editing for a Special (Single or Multi-Camera); and Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special. It won the picture editing award and lost all of its other bids. The five nominations were among HBO's total of 104 in 2011, which made up over one-fifth of the total nominations.
and Blu-ray
on November 21, 2011. In addition to the content of the original HBO broadcast, it includes new, previously-unseen footage. The video is a part of a bundled package – along with the 17-track special edition of Gaga's album Born This Way
and a remix album, Born This Way: The Remix
– titled Born This Way, The Collection, which was released the same day. In the US, the Blu-ray edition of Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden was available exclusively at Best Buy. The DVD charted on the UK Music Video chart at number four, for the issue dated December 3, 2011. In the United States, it entered Billboard
s Top Music Video
chart at the top, selling 26,000 copies of the DVD—the greatest total for a music video since Beyoncé Knowles
' I Am... World Tour
live CD/DVD sold 37,000 and 31,000 copies in its first two weeks in November and December 2010.
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
's The Monster Ball Tour
The Monster Ball Tour
The Monster Ball Tour was the second worldwide concert tour by American recording artist Lady Gaga. Staged in support of her album The Fame Monster and comprising a set list of songs from that and her debut album The Fame , the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 2009 through 2011...
. Filmed at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
in Gaga's hometown of New York City, the two-hour special was produced by HBO and first broadcast on the channel on May 7, 2011, a day after Gaga's last date of The Monster Ball Tour. It was released November 21, 2011 on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
.
Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden features concert footage as well as pre-concert and backstage content. The special received positive reviews; critics praised Gaga's performance yet doubted her sincerity during her on-stage rambling and in pre-concert scenes. They also noted similarities to Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's 1991 documentary Truth or Dare
Madonna: Truth or Dare
Madonna: Truth or Dare is a 1991 American documentary film chronicling the life of American singer-songwriter Madonna during her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour...
. The special was nominated for five awards at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in primetime television programming from June 1, 2010 until May 31, 2011, was held on September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the ceremony within the United States. Actress Jane Lynch hosted...
winning one – Outstanding Picture Editing for a Special (Single or Multi-Camera).
Content
The special opens with a black-and-white introduction that sees Gaga ordering a cup of coffee from a New York convenience store before being escorted by security into a black SUV, where she reminisces about the many times she had been at the arena to watch other acts perform, and realizes that she will now be performing there herself. After being escorted backstage, she removes her makeup and cries as she discusses feeling like a "loser". She then sings the opening lines of "Marry the NightMarry the Night
"Marry the Night" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released as the fifth single from her second studio album, Born This Way . The song was written and produced by Lady Gaga and Fernando Garibay, and was recorded on the tour bus during The Monster Ball Tour with Garibay...
" while preparing to take the stage. Full-color footage of the concert (shot on February 21 and 22, 2011) is then seen, interspersed with black-and-white backstage footage. The special ends with another black-and-white backstage scene where Gaga and her backup singers perform "Born This Way
Born This Way (song)
"Born This Way" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga, from her second studio album, Born This Way. Written and produced by Gaga, Fernando Garibay, Jeppe Laursen and DJ White Shadow, "Born This Way" was developed while Gaga was on the road with The Monster Ball Tour...
" a capella.
Release and reception
Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden aired on HBO on May 7, 2011. According to BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, the special was watched by 1.2 million viewers. It received positive reviews from critics. Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
wrote, "[B]etween the orgy of visuals—stripper strobes, androgynous dancers and a very loose, X-rated 'Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
' theme—we get some great song and dance numbers: 'Poker Face
Poker Face (Lady Gaga song)
"Poker Face" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga from her debut album, The Fame. Produced by RedOne, it was released as the album's second single in late 2008 for some markets and in early 2009 for the rest of the world...
', 'Paparazzi
Paparazzi (Lady Gaga song)
"Paparazzi" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released as the final single from her debut album The Fame . Written by Rob Fusari and Gaga, the song portrays Gaga's struggles in her quest for fame, as well as balancing success and love...
' and 'Bad Romance
Bad Romance
"Bad Romance" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released as the lead single from her third extended play , and second major release The Fame Monster . Written by Lady Gaga and produced by RedOne, the track was inspired by Gaga's fear of negative love relationships and the...
'. These are amazing hits, club-thumping tracks that define joy and sadness for a generation of suburban teens and the urban disenfranchised." However, he felt that the show's non-concert content was not genuine, and found the special to be similar to Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare
Madonna: Truth or Dare
Madonna: Truth or Dare is a 1991 American documentary film chronicling the life of American singer-songwriter Madonna during her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour...
. The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
s Genevieve Koski gave the special a B+ rating, claiming that Gaga "proves that she is a performer" and that "she puts on a show", though she felt that the concert was overly emotional and artistically ambitious, and that Gaga's on-stage banter was slightly annoying. Koski also compared the special to the Madonna documentary. Paul Schrodt of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
was more critical in his review, though he gave it a 2.5-star (out of 4) rating. While he positively called Gaga's performances outrageous and "occasionally fierce", he questioned Gaga's authenticity, both on stage and in the pre-concert scenes. Ultimately, he wrote, "Unsurprisingly, HBO's Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden raises more questions about Stefani Germanotta [Gaga's birth name] than it answers, which is probably as it should be."
The special received five nominations at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in primetime television programming from June 1, 2010 until May 31, 2011, was held on September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the ceremony within the United States. Actress Jane Lynch hosted...
. It was nominated for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special; Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special; Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special; Outstanding Picture Editing for a Special (Single or Multi-Camera); and Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special. It won the picture editing award and lost all of its other bids. The five nominations were among HBO's total of 104 in 2011, which made up over one-fifth of the total nominations.
Video release
Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on November 21, 2011. In addition to the content of the original HBO broadcast, it includes new, previously-unseen footage. The video is a part of a bundled package – along with the 17-track special edition of Gaga's album Born This Way
Born This Way
Born This Way is the second studio album by American recording artist Lady Gaga that was released on May 23, 2011, by Interscope Records. The album is a follow-up to her internationally-successful albums The Fame and The Fame Monster...
and a remix album, Born This Way: The Remix
Born This Way: The Remix
Born This Way: The Remix is the second remix album by American recording artist Lady Gaga, released on November 18, 2011. The album features remixes of tracks from her second studio album, Born This Way...
– titled Born This Way, The Collection, which was released the same day. In the US, the Blu-ray edition of Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden was available exclusively at Best Buy. The DVD charted on the UK Music Video chart at number four, for the issue dated December 3, 2011. In the United States, it entered Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Top Music Video
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
chart at the top, selling 26,000 copies of the DVD—the greatest total for a music video since Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
' I Am... World Tour
I Am... World Tour
I Am... World Tour is a live DVD/CD concert film by American R&B recording artist Beyoncé Knowles who also produced, directed and edited the concert film for her own Parkwood Pictures. The DVD was filmed in presence of more than a million of fans during her worldwide I Am... Tour, running from...
live CD/DVD sold 37,000 and 31,000 copies in its first two weeks in November and December 2010.
Track listing
Bonus content- "Born This Way" (a capella) – 3:16
- "Backstage at the Monster Ball" – 12:50
- Photo gallery
Charts
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Music DVD Top 10 | 5 |
| Czech Music DVD Chart | 9 |
| Dutch Music DVD Top 10 MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
3 |
| Finnish Music DVD Chart Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland ry, or Musiikkituottajat for short, is the umbrella organization of recording producers active in Finland, with 23 record labels as its members.-Activity:... |
4 |
| Hungarian Music DVD Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
7 |
| Irish Music DVD Chart Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:... |
6 |
| Italian Music DVD Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
1 |
| Japanese Oricon DVD Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
3 |
| Swedish Music Video Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
10 |
| Swiss Music Video Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
2 |
| UK Music Video Chart | 4 |
| US Billboard Top Music Videos Billboard charts The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine... |
1 |