I have tried not to be jealous of my friend Lolo who was in Vegas for the U2 show a couple of weeks ago because while I’m not as out-of-her-mind obsessed about U2 as she is, I mean, I was around during the rise of U2. I was around in the time of The Joshua Tree and “With our Without You” was the soundtrack of our lives. So I get it. I get the power of this show over people. And if I had the opportunity, I would go too.
The people who were there last night were treated to an extra special one. Bono brought out Lady Gaga, and together she and the band performed “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, “Shallow”, and…
“All I Want Is You”… !!!
Like I said above, if you were around in the 80s and 90s, these were the classics for certain members of our generation. Not everyone, but many of us. Also, for those of us who lived and breathed Reality Bites in that era, that song has great significance too.
I will never not cry when I hear these lyrics:
“Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest”
For Gaga to have had the honour of joining in on that track, and on “What I’m Looking For”, and for Bono and the band to join her on “Shallow”, it must have been an all-time thrill for an artist who has already experienced so many all-time thrills. Like just last week when she was with the Rolling Stones in New York.
That’s Gaga’s superpower though and the superpower that sets her and the few in this rarified space apart – that she can go from jazz standards and Tony Bennett to the Rolling Stones and U2 and right back to Ariana Grande and Flo Rida. And what I think the legends appreciate about her is that she comes in as a fellow artist, she understands exactly who she is on these stages and what boundaries to respect and exactly how much or how little to flex. Which is how we get performances like this. Watch if you haven’t already.
