Gaga didn’t really take a leap of faith
It was a jaw-dropping start to the Super Bowl halftime show: There was Lady Gaga, crooning God Bless America and Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land on the roof of Houston’s NRG Stadium, framed by a fleet of illuminated drones swirling in the sky behind her.
Then Gaga stepped to the edge of the roof, flung her arms open and leapt into the open air above the field.
The internet promptly went bonkers: Twitter was flooded with allcaps expletives and awe. Headlines gushed over the stunt. She literally just jumped off the roof, said basically everybody.
Except she didn’t seriously jump from the roof — at least, not live at the Super Bowl (as some quickly pointed out, it seemed a bit suspicious that the camera cut away abruptly as soon as she fell out of view). The intro to Gaga’s performance was actually taped several days in advance.
The creative teams behind the dazzling display wanted to avoid any potential weather problems; not to mention that having a pop star plummet safely from the roof to the field poses some significant challenges.
“From a logistics and creative perspective, it’s a bit hard for her to go from the roof all the way down to the floor of the stadium,” Natalie Cheung, general manager for Intel Drones, told USA Today.
For those sitting in the stadium, the first moments of Gaga’s performance were played on massive screens. When taped-Gaga jumped from the roof, real life-Gaga suddenly appeared in a spotlight, suspended below the ceiling rafters, dancing and flipping as she descended toward a glittering tower.
For days before the game, Gaga’s fans were thrilled by rumours that the pop icon would perform on the stadium roof. On a Boston radio show, Gaga sidestepped details about her act but confirmed her younger sister had suggested the daring stunt.
“My sister was like, I know, let’s suspend you in the air!” Gaga said.
Her live show did involve plenty of impressive midair acrobatics, even if the roof-dive was something of an illusion.
“This performance is for everyone,” Gaga said several days before the show. “I want more than anything to create a moment that people will never forget.”
That much seems certain.