Lady Gaga Spoke and Sang for National Unity in 2017

Hurricane Harvey Flooding, Texas

Let’s go back to look at an excellent musical speech by Lady Gaga. The best speeches remind us to live by our ideals. We need to remember those ideals today. 

On October 21, 2017, Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) performed at the Hurricane Relief Concert at Texas A&M University. All five former presidents attended, while President Donald Trump gave a video message. Lady Gaga used two impressive public speaking techniques: she called the audience to action by appealing to common values, and she accompanied herself with music.

Speaking for hurricane relief, a cause to which she gave a one-million dollar donation, Lady Gaga appealed to the all-American values of equality, national unity, and group effort. She expressed these values, ideals that we seem already to have forgotten, clearly and precisely:

“The most special thing of all is how pain is such an equalizer. And in a time of catastrophe we all put our differences aside and we come together, because we need each other or we can’t survive.”

Truer words were never spoken. All of us, rich and poor alike, suffer pain, fear, and anxiety. Storms can strike anyone; the Bible says that it rains on the just and unjust alike. However, a modern pundit commented that, “The sun shines on the rich and the poor alike. But when it comes to rain, the rich have better umbrellas.”

Lady Gaga’s thesis, however, called for us all to join together to meet the catastrophe: “We need each other or we can’t survive.”

She also pointed out that mental health during a catastrophe was as important as physical health:

“The One America appeal is one of a kind. This is a historical moment that we are truly one nation [she paused dramatically] under God. But what I’m here to remind you of is that, as the cofounder of the Born This Way Foundation, we must also recover mentally as well as physically.”

Note how she again emphasized unity: “truly one nation,” “one nation under God,” “One America.”


Earlier Post: Prince Harry Talked about Values at the Invictus Games


Second, Lady Gaga worked music into her presentation. As she said her remarks slowly, softly and clearly, with an occasional smile on her face, in a remarkably rich speaking voice, she accompanied herself by playing quietly on a gleaming white concert grand piano that was color-coordinated with her dress. She paused often, letting her words sink in, using the piano music to fill in the silences. Music and speech both communicate with sound, and singing during a speech has a long tradition.


Earlier Post: Stevie Wonder’s Hurricane Harvey Speech: Music and Speech Together


Lady Gaga finished by singing several of her songs that she felt expressed appropriate values. An announcer then thanked her for the performance and encouraged viewers to give further donations.

We often hear music in the background during political advertisements and polemical political TV shows. President Donald Trump, for example, controversially used John Fogerty’s song “Fortunate Son” during recent campaign appearances. (Fogerty’s song criticizes people like President Trump and Fogerty has asked Trump to stop using it.) Professional persuaders who use television and the Internet know that music helps them to send their message. If canned music on television adds to the message, live music carries even more power. Lady Gaga created her own musical accompaniment by playing and singing during her presentation. Her quite lovely piano music created a mood while she spoke, and, no doubt, helped to place the audience in a favorable frame of mind.

A nation needs to work together if it is to flourish. Our nation cannot long endure in its current divided condition, while persons of common goals ridicule one another for political gain.

Epideictic, or ceremonial, speech exists to remind us of what we share in common. Epideictic speech does, in fact, often lead to policy, just as Lady Gaga used a presentation to encourage donations to a worthy cause. Music exists to express how we feel. Speech and music belong together.

P.S.: A while back, I published an article called “‘We Want Yer, McKinley’: Epideictic Rhetoric in Songs from the 1896 Presidential Campaign.” Click on "William D. Harpine's Publications" above and scroll halfway down to find the link. 

Image: Hurricane Harvey flooding at Aransas Pass, Texas, not far from my own home, NOAA