“This really is a Little Monsters press conference,” Lady Gaga said in response to the very first question a fan asked her at Spotify’s recent event for top listeners celebrating Gaga’s new album Mayhem.
Spotify gathered 200 of her top fans — and crucially, locked up their phones — at Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse on Feb. 27 for a listening party, in which Mayhem played in its entirety and Gaga herself took to the floor to dance with fans. Then, those same fans gathered for a mock press conference, hosted by Benny Drama. That first question was if Gaga had seen Azealia Banks’s comments about her song “Disease” — the answer: yes — and was one of many questions about deep Gaga lore. These fans covered everything from the alleged “Telephone pt. 2” to what Gaga may have whispered in Ariana Grande’s ear at the VMAs.
As one person put it on Reddit, “the whole conference was basically Gaga talking about and answering questions on Little Monsters’ conspiracy theories.” And Gaga was game for all of it, clad in black velvet buttoned up to her throat and ready for anything fans might throw at her — and what they often brought to her (alongside the funny conspiracies) were thoughtful, probing questions about how she makes her art. To see a pop artist at her level, an eternal A-lister whose music and aesthetic has influenced both her contemporaries and a new generation of artists, sit down with fans to hear their largely un-vetted questions about her past and future, her music and the mayhem around it… well, it felt kind of radical.
It reminded me that fandom in this brutal internet era can still be fun and supportive and good. It also reminded me of what fans and artists gain when these big names open themselves up to being asked (by fans and by journalists) about their work and persona, and yes, sometimes their personal life. Listening to Gaga’s press conference helps fans understand Mayhem better — it provides context and shape, and also puts some amount of narrative control back in Gaga’s hands.
Mayhem, Gaga explained, was “an integration of who I am in real life and who I am on stage, and how I really started to celebrate bringing those two things together, two things that don’t really go together actually. Turns out that’s the whole me. This album holds all that tension, the softness of who I am on the inside and the intensity that I like to bring to my music and to my stage performances. How do I hold that in one place?”
Lady Gaga dances with fans during the Spotify: Little Monster Press Conference on February 27, 2025 in New York City.Arturo Holmes/Courtesy of Spotify
