Lady Gaga Battled Personal and Political Darkness During Miami's Mayhem Ball

Editor's Note: "Lady Gaga Cancels Third Miami Show." Click to read updates.

It's been almost three years to the day since Lady Gaga last played a show in Miami, and it was a dramatic one. As the singer sat down at her piano for the stripped-down portion of her set, lightning in the area threatened to shut down the concert. Gaga laughed it off at first, but after a two-hour rain delay, the final show of her Chromatica Ball tour ended before the last set and encore. It was a symbolic end for an album era marred by the start of the COVID pandemic.

September showers followed Gaga to Miami once again Sunday night, but under otherwise starkly different conditions. This time, the singer is touring in support of her seventh studio album, Mayhem, her biggest critical and commercial success since 2011's Born This Way.

Fans who five years ago dressed in bright Chromatica pink turned out in gothic black, red, and maroon getups to embody the dark spirit of the Mistress of Mayhem, the alter ego Gaga inhabits (and battles) during her more than two-hour Mayhem Ball show. We watch Gaga shoot that other side of herself, follow her as she falls into a dream-like abyss, and resurrects as a figure who learns to live with the dark elements inside her. She's returned to the theme of battling demons time and again during her nearly 20 years as a touring act — we've watched her battle the Fame Monster (a massive, glowing angler fish) during the Monster Ball and the disembodied visage of Mother G.O.A.T. during the Born This Way Ball — but it had been several years since she'd dug into this fertile thematic ground.
As with all Gaga shows, the experience began long before Mother Monster hit the stage. The sidewalks outside the Kaseya Center doubled as red carpets fit for the Met Gala (Met Gaga?) as her Little Monsters complimented and photographed one another's DIY masterpieces. Once inside, the arena was transformed into an opera house. Arias blared over the speakers as fans sent in short messages projected to the audience: among them were at least two marriage proposals and celebrations of first concerts and cancer survival. Then, an LED video of Gaga appeared, the singer scrolling away with a quill pen on a massive screen above the set.
Once she finished writing, two opposing images of the singer appeared onscreen, reciting her manifesto, which read in part:

"To not know any peace is the great nightmare for us all
To wake and feel unsettled in a house that has no walls.

So I must sing and build the walls to cradle my own space.
And my own sound will grow the fortress of a home erased.

And her and I, will find a way to live as dueling twins.

But I will know if, in the end, Mistress of Mayhem wins."

Diehard Little Monsters and even casual music fans might have seen this show, dubbed "The Art of Personal Chaos," before. Gaga performed an abridged version during her two headlining Coachella shows, as well as in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and Singapore. But Gaga managed to save some surprises for the tour, particularly for Miami.

First, though, Gaga pounded through two kinetic sets featuring cult hits alongside Billboard chart-toppers. Before you had time to let the Gregorian chants of "Bloody Mary" wash over you, she'd hit you with the heel stomping "Abracadabra," "Judas," "Aura," and "Scheiße." She'd step off your neck briefly for a costume change, then march down the catwalk again, playing guitar on "Garden of Eden" before hitting its heart-pounding dance break and pausing for roars from the audience.
Her dueling twin reappeared during "Poker Face," this time as the stage became a chessboard on which two queens fought for dominance in a dance battle. Gaga, embodying the Mistress of Mayhem, shot her alter ego, sending her on a journey that took her through burial grounds and across rivers.

Getting into a boat with the Mistress, Gaga floated to the B-stage for her stripped-down piano set. Fans no doubt flashed back to the last time she sat at that piano before us, with flashes in the sky warning the show would not continue. This time, Gaga not only got to complete the show, but she also made up for last time with a special performance of "Hair," which she dusted off in New York City last week for the first time in more than a decade. It was one of several treats she saved for longtime fans at this tour.
Gaga famously doubles down on her current album when she's touring ("For those of you who came to hear the hits, either grab a glow stick or get the fuck out!" she'd scream during her ArtRave tour in support of her divisive Artpop album). Still, she's been much more generous this time around. Yes, she plays nearly all of Mayhem. But, she also performs "Bloody Mary" for the weirdos who got it the first time, 14 years before it went viral on TikTok, right alongside "Shallow" and "Die With a Smile," for fans who love her pipes but might not necessarily care about artifice or alter egos.

And it wasn't just her twin persona Gaga battled in Miami. A light political undertone hung over the evening — it's hard to avoid in Florida, particularly for an artist who's been propped up as champion for queer rights for the better part of two decades. One poignant moment came during "Paparazzi," when a massive train of fabric behind Gaga, stretching from the B-stage to the mainstage opera set, lit up in rainbow colors, illuminating the entire arena.

Another nod came during the encore. Gaga has been rolling out deep cuts from her discography during this part of the set, first from Artpop and currently from Born This Way. For her first of three Miami shows, she took her final bow with "Americano," a song she performed last year during her Jazz & Piano residency in Vegas but has not performed in its original iteration since 2013. The song advocates for immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights and feels at once a remnant of a bygone era and a reminder of how tenuous political progress can be. Gaga first released the song in May 2011, four months before the official repeal of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and a full year before then-President Barack Obama voiced his support for marriage equality. It also came at a time when the former president was harshly criticized by immigrant rights groups, who dubbed him the "Deporter-in-Chief."
Looking through the lens of 2025, it's hard to hear that song and not let the crushing feeling sink in that the state of affairs has only deteriorated. For many in the crowd, the sheer acknowledgment took a load off. "She did that for us," one fan commented in the walkway after the show. "She did 'Americano' for Miami," another commented to her friend in the bathroom. These fans know exactly what it's like "to wake and feel unsettled" every day by forces much more threatening than Gaga's metaphorical Mistress of Mayhem. For approximately 135 minutes inside that opera house, their voices built a fortress, but what happens outside its walls remains to be written.

Lady Gaga's Sunday night show was the first of three concerts the singer will perform in Miami, with two additional dates on Monday, September 1, and Wednesday, September 3, at the Kaseya Center.

Setlist:

- "Bloody Mary"
- "Abracadabra"
- "Judas"
- "Aura"
- "Scheiße"
- "Garden of Eden"
- "Poker Face"
- "Perfect Celebrity"
- "Disease"
- "Paparazzi"
- "LoveGame"
- "Alejandro"
- "The Beast"
- "Killah"
- "Zombieboy"
- "LoveDrug"
- "Applause"
- "Just Dance"
- "Shadow of a Man"
- "Kill for Love"
- "Summerboy"
- "Born This Way"
- "Million Reasons"
- "Shallow"
- "Die With a Smile"
- "Hair"
- "Vanish Into You"
- "Bad Romance"

Encore:
- "How Bad Do U Want Me"
- "Americano"