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Why Lady Gaga hides behind masks and costumes

Why Lady Gaga hides behind masks and costumes
Why Lady Gaga hides behind masks and costumes
Why Lady Gaga hides behind masks and costumes

Human Behavior Expert and Celebrity Life Coach Patrick Wanis, PhD, answers a reporter’s in-depth questions about Lady Gaga, Madonna and the social and artistic impact each one has had. This is Part 6: Why Lady Gaga hides behind masks and costumes

For Part 5: Artists & singers who refuse to grow up and evolve, click here:

https://patrickwanis.com/blog/artists-singers-refuse-grow-evolve/

Patrick: The other thing about Lady Gaga is. a lot of women said, “Oh, she is original and she is unique, and she is so confident. She is not afraid to express herself.” I would argue she is very afraid to express herself because she is always hiding behind a mask. Anytime you put on that much makeup and you put on a completely different face, you’re not showing the world your real self. You’re hiding behind a mask.

Now, you might argue to me, well, maybe she has many different sides, many different personalities. Yes, but I don’t think she has a hundred thousand. We never see her with the most important side, the most important personality, a natural face.

Natalia: Actually, recently, she gained a lot of weight in the past couple of months, and recently she created this movement that’s called the Body Revolution and she posted pictures of herself, just in her underwear, no makeup, no nothing, her eyes closed, and like recent pictures of herself showing how much weight she had gained. Wouldn’t that be her natural self or –?

Patrick: You know, I think that’s a great point and I think it’s a valid point. Maybe she has come to that point where she is (now that she’s got the fame and the success), she has more courage and more confidence to reveal more of her natural self.

Natalia: Because this is something that she is doing now. When it happened we were all well, not shocked because we’re used to her being shocking, but it was pleasantly surprising. When she first started like 2009, she had this interview in which she said, “I am always Lady Gaga.” That’s why you would see her all the time being Lady Gaga. You never see her as just wearing jeans and a T-shirt. No, she is always extravagant because she is always in character.

Patrick: Right. And if you look at the photos that she released of her in underwear and with a few extra pounds, she did it via Twitter, did she not?

Natalia: Yes, she did.

Patrick: So that’s a very safe way of testing the water and seeing how the audience is going to react to you, how is the world going to react. That’s very different to going in concert and standing there without any makeup and singing.

I also do believe that we have to accept, too, that she does get a lot of coaching and styling. She doesn’t do everything all on her own. If you watch that HBO concert of hers where they’re showing you her in the dressing room and she is talking about how hard it was for her to grow up in school and she is crying, to me, it doesn’t feel like it’s coming from the heart. It feels like —

Natalia: Staged.

Patrick: Yes, staged, like she has to do this. And then in another point she says, “Oh, God, give me the strength to – let me focus. This is for my fans. I’m not here for me. I’m here for my fans.” I don’t believe that she really believes that. It felt to me like again someone is encouraging her and telling her what to say for the camera, for the concert, because she knows she is being filmed. So what’s the best way of saying, ‘I don’t feel confident; I don’t feel good; but I have to remember I’m doing this for the fans’?

In all the years that I’ve worked with artists and musicians and composers and dancers, I’ve never heard someone come out and say, “I’m doing this for the audience. I’m here for the audience.” That doesn’t mean that every artist is insincere or selfish. It means I, the artist, want to express myself and I want to share this message and my art and my music with the audience. But I’m here first to express the art. And then yes, I want the audience to appreciate me. But no artist says, “Oh, I’m not here for me. I’m just here for the audience.”

An artist should remember that they’re there for the audience, but they’re not just there for the audience. The artist really is there because they want to express themselves.

So my point is that I never felt it was sincere. I felt that she was coached. I can send you the clip to that. There is a clip.

Natalia: Okay, perfect. I would appreciate that.

Patrick: I felt she was very staged. That’s why I need to go back and listen to all the lyrics, to listen to what she actually says, but it just didn’t feel like, it didn’t feel authentic. She knows that she is being filmed and it sounds so staged.

Click here for Part 7 of the interview: Madonna and Lady Gaga – gay icons https://patrickwanis.com/blog/madonna-lady-gaga-gay-icons/

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