When one is invited to a luncheon with Lady Gaga, you wonder: Will you be getting Mother Monster? Tribute Gaga? Gaga in Saint Laurent Feathers? Nope, on Monday at the Grammy Museum's annual Jane Ortner Education Award luncheon, guests were treated to Cheek to Cheek Gaga, and it was amazing.
First, let's talk about why she was there. "I don't know where I would be without my education of music," said Gaga at the luncheon, which honored her with the Jane Ortner Artist Award for demonstrating passion to education through the arts. Teachers who use music in the classroom as an educational tool were honored, too, particularly eight-grade teacher Jonathan Bernal (whose students, by the way, throw down "epic rap battles" using the works of Stevie Wonder and Robert Frost, and we would like to take that class, thanks).
John Legend romanced the well-heeled guests first, starting with a Here Comes the Sun cover and ending with All of Me, as everyone sat under a huge white tent in billionaire Ron Burkle's manicured backyard. (Life was not hard at this moment.) Also, desserts were served on vinyl records.
Enter Gaga. Recording Academy president Neil Portnow introduced the pop star, who immediately toasted the room with a glass of white wine. "It's a luncheon, isn't Pinot Grigio a rite of passage?" she asked. (Editor's note: yes.) That's when things got awesome.
First, Gaga sang 'New York, New York.'
Made some more jokes about wine.
And then crushed it singing 'La Vie en Rose.'
So essentially, Lady Gaga won Monday.
