The Hills Are Alive with The Sound of Gaga

Lady Gaga continues to be a viral Internet sensation after her performance of songs from The Sound of Music at last Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony. Almost everyone seems to love it. Even that stupid anchor on Fox "News" who described the famed, over fifty-year-old Oscar (no relation to the awards) and Hammerstein numbers as a relief from Gaga's usual "jigaboo music." When confronted about her ugly and offensive word, Fox newsbimbo Kristi Capel broke down and said she had no idea what the word meant and apologized.

Excuse me?! Who uses words during a broadcast that they don't understand? It's a special kind of stupid, isn't it? By "jigaboo" music, I assume Ms Capel is including all of Gaga's electronica/dance music as well as her work with Tony Bennett. Singing Cole Porter for example. But when it comes to Broadway theater songs from a play about Nazis chasing a white, all-singing Christian family through the Alps, even a Fox anchor knows to draw the line.

Nonetheless,  Lady G has positioned herself as a major talent and prominent diva of our time. Moving on from her pop/ disco career (that I love), she has impressed the critics and public alike with her latest middle-of-the road/ nostalgia album, Cheek to Cheek, with Bennett. Her Sound of Music moment at the 87th Oscars was a complete coup! It's kind of a Sixties throwback, to a time when female singers like Vicki Carr, Lesley Gore, Shirley Bassey, Ann-Margret, Mitzi Gaynor, Barbra Steisand (all for example) frequently transversed musical subgenres to show off their versatility.