The one-night-only performance of Gaga’s Joker-inspired album was filmed last September and will hit YouTube later this week
Last September, Lady Gaga treated some very lucky fans to a super-secret, one-night-only performance of her 2024 album Harlequin in its entirety. Now she’s announced the concert film is coming to the masses.
“Happy holidays to you and yours,” Gaga wrote in an Instagram caption, accompanying a poster for the performance. “Lady Gaga in Harlequin Live: One Night Only Coming Xmas Eve @ 4pm PT on my YouTube channel.”
The wide release for the concert film — which was recorded at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles — comes after Gaga debuted it during an event at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Dec. 18. Harlequin is currently in the running for the Best Traditional Pop Album at the Grammys.
Harlequin mostly consists of Gaga’s unique covers of jazz classics, along with two original tracks. On the long intermission between last year’s Harlequin performance and this month’s film release, Variety reports that Gaga said, “It was interesting — when we first saw the footage, we said, ‘This is not the right time to put this out.’ And we collectively agreed that we would allow the lore of the Belasco performance to bloom with the fans, until it felt like time… And so this is like a Christmas present.”
Gaga also detailed why the time feels right now. “I’m feeling like: Why not?” she said. “We have this thing that’s so special to us, so we’re just really happy to share it with the fans. It’s kind of a rebellious project. And, by Harlequin standards, Christmas is the perfect time to release something rebellious.”
According to Variety, Gaga performed Harlequin with a six-piece band after midnight last September. The set was made to look like a run-down apartment, though fans couldn’t document it themselves as phones and smartwatches were collected.
In his review of the Joker: Folie a Deux-inspired album, Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield wrote, “She taps into the connection between her alter ego Harley Quinn and herself, hiding her pain behind makeup and costumes so the show can go on, weeping the tears of a clown when there’s no one around.”
