{"id":902,"date":"2020-09-24T09:41:18","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T09:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umusic.ie\/backend\/?post_type=feature&p=902"},"modified":"2021-03-08T14:11:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T14:11:14","slug":"lady-gaga-911-an-explainer","status":"publish","type":"music-features","link":"https:\/\/umusic.ie\/backend\/music-features\/lady-gaga-911-an-explainer\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Gaga – 911 an explainer"},"author":3,"template":"","tags":[382,163,89,90],"category_post":[383],"acf":{"intro_copy":"There's a lot to look at in the new Lady Gaga video for 911, so we thought we'd take you through some easter eggs.","smudge":false,"section_news":[{"acf_fc_layout":"copy_image","image":"https:\/\/umusic.ie\/backend\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Lady-Gaga.jpg","image_orientation":"landscape","copy":"

If you\u2019re a Lady Gaga fan, then you have most definitely seen the new video for \u2018911\u2019. If you haven\u2019t, well you\u2019re missing out and should scroll down a wee bit to check out what the fuss is all about! Also, there are spoilers from the next line on, so you really should watch it.<\/p>\n

To say that this video is detailed is an understatement. It\u2019s more a short-movie than a music video. There\u2019s plenty of references to some previous Gaga releases, and stories \u2013 as well as some incredibly detailed research into Armenian movies.<\/p>\n

So to start, the video is a strict Gaga style; technicolour, glam, surreal in the style of Bad Romance, or Telephone. The song itself was written by Gaga about her past usage of anti-psychotic medication and the feelings and emotions which arise from that. A throwaway line toward the end of the short, as Gaga lays on the street is a reference to that.<\/p>\n

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The short takes place in a hallucination after Gaga is hit by a car while riding her bike along the street, a reflection on a real-life incident that took place a few years ago, in which she was injured by a car while cycling.<\/p>\n

References to the accident take place all throughout the short. Their placement is clever, subtle and beautifully integrated into what is a love letter to Armenian film, and art.<\/p>\n

The man who appears in the video turns out to be a first responder, a woman dressed in white with a red cross is a doctor and appear through-out most of the video. Including a moment where Gaga with a halo begins ascending only to be tethered back to the ground by the pair, a reference perhaps to being brought back to life.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, a man hitting his head against a pillow is a fellow victim hitting his airbag, a woman cradling a mummified body is someone holding a loved one, while a man wearing a blue head-dress is in fact a police officer.<\/p>\n

The entire short is against the backdrop of an Armenian film festival, and the White Sands desert, which appears on a digital billboard in the ‘real world’.<\/p>\n

The various hints, easter eggs, and clues all come together toward the end when Gaga is resuscitated by a paramedic, who takes centre-stage in her out-of-mind experience.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s worth heavily noting that the whole dream-sequence is deeply rooted in Armenian film and culture. The entire video is a blend, not only of what Gaga takes in on the street (White Sands of Mexico, Paramedics, broken pomegranates), but also a homage to a movie any Armenian film fan would recognise; \u2018The Color Pomegranate\u2019. The fruit appears several times in the video also.<\/p>\n

The Color Pomegranate was made in 1969 in then-Soviet Armenia, as an art film.<\/p>\n

“As much ritual as a movie, ‘The Color of Pomegranates’ was staged amid ancient ruins, using religious relics as props,” the New York Times wrote in 2018.<\/p>\n

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In an Instagram post promoting the film, Gaga herself shed further light on the significance of the song, the lyrics, and the references. \u201cThis short film is very personal to me, my experience with mental health and the way reality and dreams can interconnect to form heroes within us and all around us,\u201d wrote Gaga. She went on to thank her devoted fans. \u201cI\u2019m awake now, I can see you, I can feel you, thank you for believing in me when I was very afraid. Something that was once my real life everyday is now a film, a true story that is now the past and not the present. It\u2019s the poetry of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n