Lady Gaga‘s halftime show at yesterday’s Super Bowl was a huge spectacle, but at least two of the most impressive moments from the performance were actually pre-recorded.
Gaga’s 13-minute halftime show featured a mega-medley of her best-known tracks, and began with Mother Monster (supposedly) jumping from the roof of Texas’ NRG Stadium, and being carried by wires to a stage below.
As it turns out, the rooftop jump was filmed in advance, with Gaga likely landing in a net. Audience-filmed footage of yesterday’s performance shows what the jump looked like inside the stadium, with Gaga seen held up by wires and waiting for her cue as the prerecorded footage is shown.
Take a look:
LADY. GAGA.#SuperBowl #LadyGaga #PepsiHalftime pic.twitter.com/VKwvCIZpu5
— NFL Brasil (@NFLBrasil) February 6, 2017
As USA Today reports, the 300 drones which appeared at the beginning of Gaga’s performance were also pre-recorded on 30th January. So why couldn’t it all be done live?
Intel Drones’ General Manager Natalie Cheung says weather and the environment were the main issues.
“We’d hate to plan all this and, if the wind speeds are too high or if it’s raining and the roof is closed, no one can see this spectacular show,” she says.
“So our creative team as well as the Super Bowl creative team felt this would be best to be filmed. Lady Gaga also was on the roof when this was filmed, and 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.”
So yeah, it was all a Perfect Illusion…
Watch Lady Gaga’s full Super Bowl LI halftime show below, and head here to see how The Simpsons predicted the performance five years ago.
WOW. Amazing.@ladygaga's #PepsiHalftime Show! #SB51 https://t.co/z9vCKRBKkC
— NFL (@NFL) February 6, 2017
