Move over Taylor Swift: Lady Gaga announces her Chromatica Ball concert film is coming to HBO and Max
A brand new concert film is in the pipeline, this time from pop sensation Lady Gaga. Immediately after filming Joker: Folie a Deux, Mother Monster announced on Instagram that the Gaga Chromatica Ball concert special premieres May 25 on HBO and can be streamed on Max the same day.
Filmed at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in front of a sold-out crowd of 52,000, the HBO Original takes us back to the summer of 2022, when Gaga embarked on her Chromatica Ball tour. The show itself lasted approximately 130 minutes, during which she saturated the setlist with hits from her 2020 album Chromatica and Oscar-winning film A star is born (2018). She also played old favorites Poker face, Wrong love affairAnd The edge of gloryamong other things.
There’s no update on the special’s runtime, but we expect it to be announced closer to the release date. You can watch the trailer below:
In addition to performances, Gaga has taken on the role of director and producer to bring us what HBO Programming EVP Nina Rosenstein describes as a “breathtaking concert special” in the HBO press release announcing the film. While Gaga is billed as ‘producer, director and creator’ of Gaga Chromatica Ballthe special is produced by Arthur Fogel, John Janick, Steve Berman and her longtime manager Bobby Campbell.
Gaga Chromatica Ball arrives at the start of the US Memorial Day weekend, becoming part of the concert film craze that has swept the top streaming services in recent years.
Analysis: The concert film craze continues
While the streaming era has fueled the concert film craze, many people seem to forget that artists and bands have been making films of their live shows for years. I feel like this is because concert films got a kind of ‘uncool’ reputation in the 2010s – just look at One Direction and Justin Bieber films.
But now concert specials have reached new heights of popularity, with their releases becoming an event in themselves. Just look at Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour film on Disney Plus, and the cinematic release of Renaissance: a film by Beyoncé, where fans swarm to cinemas in silver and chrome outfits.
Gaga seemed to pick up on the craze early, taking to Instagram in June 2023 to reveal that a film version of her Chromatica Ball tour was on the way — before rumors of Taylor and Beyoncé’s concert specials even started circulating.
Gaga joins a long line of artists with special concert features to their name, and I would expect that Gaga Chromatica Ball to be nothing short of a huge success – and I can’t wait to relive my summer highlight of 2022.