August 29, 2011
Lady Gaga's Male Alter-Ego at the VMAs
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
It was ladies' night at the Video Music Awards, as Katy Perry, Adele, Beyonce and Lady Gaga were among the top performers and winners. But Gaga, and later Nicki Minaj, were also tuned into their masculine sides.
Gaga opened MTV's Video Music Awards dressed in drag as her male alter-ego, Jo Calderone, who sports short dark hair and smokes constantly. She/he sat down at the piano and performed Gaga's latest single, "You and I."
The envelope-pushing artist (who wore a dress made of meat to last year's VMAs) remained dressed as Calderone throughout the night. After accepting the award for best female video for "Born This Way," Calderone came into a backstage press room smoking a cigarette and drinking what looked like whiskey. She stamped the cigarette out on the carpet before posing for photos.
Asked what she can express as Calderone that she can't as Gaga, she replied, "I don't understand the question." She said Gaga asked Calderone to come in her stead, saying, "If you really love me, you'll go instead of me and you'll get in that spotlight."
"So I did," said Calderone, describing himself as a guy from New Jersey whose family hails from Palermo, Italy.
"I'm not a singer or a model or an actor or anything. I'm a guy," she said. "I'm just a guy, you know, and I just wanted to show my girl how much I love her, that's all."
Earlier in the evening, Nicki Minaj, winner of the hip-hop video award, said her new album will feature her inner male artist, Roman.
"He's a boy that lives inside of me," Minaj said. "He's a lunatic and he's gay."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
