Returning as a headliner at Coachella on Friday night, Lady Gaga wasn’t just going to do a regular concert, of course. She delivered a spectacle that took in her classics and her new material, all wrapped up in an ultra dramatic narrative she called the “Manifesto of Mayhem.”
The show kicked off with two screens, both showing different versions of Gaga, reciting a lengthy spoken word piece to set the scene. “This is the manifesto of mayhem,” they began. “The mistress stands before me, eyes wide and full of wrath … beware, she says. The chaos in your heart will never cease until you find another way to harness what you seek.”
The piece ended with the two Gagas saying, “She and I will find a way to live as dueling twins, but I will know if, in the end, the mistress of mayhem wins.”
Then things got going with a five-act set that appeared to be a commentary on those two “dueling twins”: Lady Gaga the “Perfect Celebrity,” as the Mayhem track puts it, and the actual person. Each set brought fabulous costumes, wigs and set pieces, all set in front of what Gaga called “an opera house in the desert.”
It’s not clear if Gaga’s upcoming Mayhem tour will incorporate some, any, all or none of these elements. You can watch her set archived on the Coachella YouTube stream now.
Here’s the set list:
Act 1: Of Velvet and Vice
“Bloody Mary”
“Abracadabra”
“Judas”
“Scheiße”
“Garden of Eden”
“Poker Face”
Act 2: And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream
“Perfect Celebrity”
“Disease”
“Paparazzi”
“Alejandro”
“The Beast”
Act 3: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name
“Killah” (with Gesaffelstein)
“Zombieboy”
“Die With a Smile”
“How Bad Do U Want Me”
Act 4: To Wake Her Is To Lose Her
“Shadow of a Man”
“Kill for Love”
“Born This Way”
“Shallow”
“Vanish Into You”
Finale: Eternal Aria Of the Monster Heart
“Bad Romance”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
