The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
KatyCats rejoice! Katy Perry returns to Grammys
LOSANGELES>> Katy Perry is returning to the Grammy Awards to the delight of fans who have been waiting to hear new music from the pop singer whose last album, “Prism,” came out in 2013.
The Recording Academy also announced Tuesday that Grammy nominees Kelsea Ballerini and Lukas Graham will perform Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Grammy nominee Demi Lovato, Andra Day, Tori Kelly and country group Little Big Town will collaborate on a performance honoring the music of the Bee Gees and the 40th anniversary of “Saturday Night Fever.”
Previously announced performers include Adele, Bruno Mars, the Weeknd, Daft Punk, A Tribe Called Quest and Alicia Keys.
Yes, ‘The Simpsons’ ‘predicted’ Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl act
Yes, of course “The Simpsons” put Lady Gaga in an aerial harness and flew her over a concert crowd five years before the performer actually did so at Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Given the degree to which the record-breaking Fox show has so savvily blanketed pop culture for three decades, “The Simpsons” can be interpreted as having “predicted” everything from NSA surveillance to President Donald Trump.
Granted, there are striking visual similarities between the 2012 episode of “The Simpsons,” titled “Lisa Goes Gaga,” and Gaga’s own halftime act over the weekend, in which she is suspended above the audience in full glittery costume before being lowered by wires to take the stage. But what is more striking is the “predictive” content and context of the episode.
“Lisa Goes Gaga” was dreamed up in 2011, after executive producer James L. Brooks was impressed by the singer’s interview on “60 Minutes.” Showrunner Al Jean approached the musician, who was game for playing a cartoon avatar of herself donning more than a dozen outfits that parodied her own headline-worthy costumes.
Yet beyond the visuals, the true connective tissue here is that in both the May 2012 “Simpsons” episode and in her Super Bowl performance, Gaga is delivering a message of inclusion in difficult times.
In “Lisa Goes Gaga,” the entire town of Springfield is in an emotional funk — particularly young Lisa, who has become especially unpopular after Bart unmasks her scheme to improve her standing at school.
It just so happens, though, that Lady Gaga is traveling town to town to build tolerance and tear down those cultural walls that divide us. And so, like a silvery goddess of self-esteem uplift, Gaga is literally uplifted above the townsfolk as she sings about overcoming differences and finding self-acceptance.
“The Simpsons” — with that episode’s message of tolerance — rings now like a dry run for Gaga’s Houston extravaganza.