OUR LADY OF GAGA: The Born This Way Ball Bangkok, an epiphanic moment amid 50,000 little monsters, and India-ink eyes à la Mexico
It’s not every day you get to see a woman who, when she lands in your city, creates her own seismic event. All day Friday Bangkok’s Sky Train rumbled with talk of “Gaga ka ka ka” and “Gaga krub.” (When speaking Thai, women add ka and men add krub as a polite particle to the end of questions and statements.)
As the Gaga-induced tremor made Bangkok kaaaaa and sway, there was a conspicuous increase in liquid eyeliner worn by men and women alike. And the ladyboys – oh the ladyboys! Some of Thailand’s infamous katoey wore the black faux-lace veils of Mexican mourning; others pasted rhinestones to their eyelids in anticipation of an evening audience with their patron saint. Because deep down — despite all their medicinal hormones and push-up bras — even the katoeys know they were born this way.
Photo courtesy of news.sky.com
Gaga’s Asian leg of the Born This Way Ball was met with protest in Manila and Jakarta. Death threats from a radical Islamic group went as far as to force her to cancel her upcoming June 3rd concert in Indonesia. And yet in Bangkok she was met with theatric, fashion-forward devotion. Thailand’s gliterati digerati buzzed for months prior to her arrival and a Thai über-fan outdid all of us by donning the full regalia of the Ram Thai — Thai classical dance — replete with a mega rhinestone glued to his / her gorgeous cheekbone and a hefty dose of feline eyeliner.
When I stepped out onto the wooden floorboards of Rajamangala National Stadium at 8:00 PM the bass was hitting so hard I could feel it in my thyroid. Over 50,000 of us were gathered in one pulsing orb; thousands in the stadium seats held up neon-colored LED sticks and when I spun around to take it all in I felt like a flapping firefly amid a neon, urban Avatar.
Aerial photo of Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, 25 May 2012
Gaga herself, looking out at all of us, appeared equally impressed. “To all the drag queens, to all the ladyboys,” she cried, “thank you, Thailand, for showing us how it’s done!” Halfway through her three-jumbo-jets-required set, which included a giant animatronic head and three-storey Polly Pocket castle which opened up to reveal Rapunzel-hang-your-hair-extensions-down towers, Gaga paused: “There’s someone in the audience who really wants to hand me something,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll give it back. I just want to wear it while I sing my song.” Slowly, a golden crown of the Ram Thai was passed hand by hand up to the stage. Gaga held it over her head, twisting it from front to back, demurring that she wanted to make sure she positioned it “properly.” Finally — the Thais in the front row giving her the go head — she donned the classical crown. Then she straddled a keyboard-cum-motorcycle and proceeded to sing “Hair.”
Image courtesy of Thai Lakorn TV
I caught my breath. And no, it wasn’t the spectacle. I live in the Nana (read: sex) district of Bangkok, where a tranny blonde in a classical headdress riding a motorcycle could easily be our neighborhood mascot. It was the power radiating off this four-foot-eleven-inch woman, and the fact that is wasn’t narcissistic, vain, or the least bit self-consumed. Gaga absorbed the fanfare of an audience of 50,000 and tossed it back at us – talking about the importance of our freedom, her respect for us, and our connection to each other. At 26, she has already learned one of life’s intrinsic lessons: If you want to keep it, you have to give it away.
All of it — the haunted castle, the meat sofa, the massive Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade-sized woman’s abdomen with spread legs through which she gave birth to herself by way of a giant zipper — made me believe her when she said, “You dream about fame your entire life, your potential, but you really never know what’s on the other side of the door.”
Why do so many of us hew to such small dreams? Why are we afraid of our own power? What are we waiting for?
slip dress: Bangkok street stall for 100 baht ($3); woven shawl: Copper Canyon, Mexico; collar necklace: Asiatique The Riverfront (Bangkok); bronze earrings: COLOR Vintage Clothing & Accessories (Phnom Penh); tricolor metallic bracelet: gift from mom
Photography, styling, and Gaga eyes by Vanessa Boots
Image courtesy of Thai Lakorn TV
Kap khun ka for reading! I blog posthaste during my lunch hour, so if you notice any factual errors or would like me to take down a photo, please contact me at kimphilley@gmail.com.
