One of the things about being a pop star is that success is so hard to sustain. Your life is built around the hit song and as soon as they stop coming or your audience grows up, you’re destined for the dustbin of music history. Lady Gaga is one of the very few pop stars that has managed to transcend the bonds of pop music in favor of a bigger picture that will keep her in the public’s ears and eyes long past when the hits dry up.
Gaga’s recent collaboration with the iconic Tony Bennett proved that she had the vocal chops to go legit (not an easy thing to do keeping up with a legend), and her Sound of Music rendition at the Oscars sealed the deal. Don’t expect to see her as the same pop star again, but watch as she becomes the current generation’s Barbra Streisand or Julie Andrews.
This transition comes just in a nick of time, as Gaga’s last pop album, Artpop, was considered a flop by many, yielding no true blockbuster hits on par with her previous successes (although “Applause” was close, charting top 10 in 20 countries). If you’re losing your mojo, then it’s time to change the game if you’re smart, and that’s what Gaga did with the Tony Bennett coupling Cheek To Cheek.
That album and subsequent appearances with Bennett proved Gaga to be more than up to the task of singing the standards. Even her harshest critics had to admit that she could pull it off with aplomb and that there was some trained singing behind even “Poker Face” and “Just Dance.” Read more on Forbes.
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