Gaga: Five Foot Two (4 Stars)

This is a fascinating documentary about the pop star Lady Gaga, available on the streaming service Netflix. She's probably the only current pop star who interests me enough to watch a documentary. For years, so long ago that I've forgotten when it started, American pop music has degenerated into rap. Lady Gaga stands out as a young performer who sings songs which are songs, with a catchy rhythm and a chorus. She knows what music is. She's also a talented musician, as proved by her skills at the piano.

The documentary follows Lady Gaga over the course of a year from 2016 to 2017, culminating in her Superbowl half time show in February 2017. I already knew Lady Gaga before watching the documentary, but now I know Stefani Germanotta, the little Italian girl from New York. She might be a little girl, only five foot two, but she's a power house. She's very successful in the music industry, but she doesn't take anything for granted, she fights for everything she wants.

Something that hampers her in her struggles is the broken hip that still causes her pain after three years. She endures it. As she tells her doctor, she feels pain, but she continues. She has a job to do and she does it. This isn't because she has to "make a living" like me and most other people. She has enough money saved to retire. She carries on because she loves what she does, and she's willing to disregard the hip pain to present her music to the world. A true artist creates art because it's what he was born to do.

This is apparent in the making of the album "Joanne" during this year. Stylistically it was different to anything she had recorded before, but she was more interested in presenting something personal than just giving her fans what they expected from her. The album was about her Aunt Joanne, an important person in her life, although it's not clear from the documentary whether she ever knew her. It's possible that she died before she was born.

At the beginning of the film she says out loud that she doesn't need a man to get what she wants. I know that this refers to the recent break up of her engagement, but it's not completely true. While watching the documentary we see the repeated appearance of the most important man in her life, her father Joe Germanotta. She's devoted to him, and he's devoted to her. When they're together we don't see Lady Gaga, we see Stefani as the little girl in his arms. Could she have succeeded without such a loving father supporting her every step of the way? Maybe, but it would have been a lot more difficult. He helped to make her what she is today.

So much of Lady Gaga is about image. She rose to fame as someone who was glamorous, sexy and provocative (though not necessarily in that order). She chose the image herself because it was necessary. In today's world of YouTube videos a musician's appearance is as important as the music itself. She's still strong enough to do her own thing. If she's told she has to look sexy she makes herself sexy, but she adds something to her appearance to ridicule the look. Sometimes she dresses up in ways that aren't sexy at all, and these are her most provocative appearances that are shown in the newspapers.

In the preparation for her Superbowl appearance she told the organisers that she wanted to do the opposite of what her fans expected. That was a good intention, but impossible to achieve. The Superbowl halftime show is a big show, possibly the biggest show of the year, and it's expected to be a dazzling spectacle with dancing and pyrotechnics. Lady Gaga couldn't have sat alone on the edge of the stage strumming an acoustic guitar. That would have been too provocative, the establishment would never have accepted it. She entered the Superbowl arena like a fairy on a string.

Stefani Germanotta is a very likeable person. She doesn't have an attitude that she's way above her fans. The fans love her, and she loves them back. She's not a remote, untouchable celebrity. We see that especially in her meeting with her fan Marlene, who claimed that Lady Gaga's music had saved her life. After the meeting Lady Gaga was in tears. No person of Lady Gaga's fame can find time to meet all her fans personally, but she was able to show her generosity by spending some time with this one special fan.

Does all this make me a fan of Lady Gaga? No. I may have watched most of her music videos on YouTube, but I prefer rock music. However, I have a deep respect for her both musically and as a person. She has a dignity that will help her evolve into an adored popular singer, even a diva,  over the next 30 years. Long live Lady Gaga!