Review: Lady Gaga "Born this way" at 2011 Grammy awards.

2011 Grammy awards: Lady Gaga and her giant Egg

Lady Gaga toned down the weirdness, at least by her standards, and gave her hotly anticipated first performance of new single Born this way at the 2011 Grammy awards. But could the live performance be strong enough to convert me to being a fan of the song?

In a nod to the song title the singer started her performance being born as Lady Gaga- oppose to her human self, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta- from a giant egg  that she claimed to have been in for days. She'd also arrived on the red carpet being carried in said egg, much to the bewilderment, and I guess annoyance, of the other celebrities who had never been upstaged by a giant egg before.

Conceptually the egg thing wasn't a huge leap for the singer, the words "born" and "egg" are pretty much synonymous if you're a bird, and so even though it wasn't particularly weird or outlandish on the Gaga scale of weirdness- remember the blood and the hanging from the chandelier at the VMA's- it was the "weirdest" and "Gaga-est" part of the performance. From that point the gimmicks were ditched and Gaga focused squarely on dancing, singing, and playing the piano to gain the adulation of the crowd.

The performance featured slick choreography, simple staging, a mini organ solo of Toccata and Fugue and a powerful, emotive vocal that communicated a passionate conviction, that is sorely lacking from the studio version, in the songs meaning.

Lady Gaga's performance of Born this way  may have been underwhelming for those who expected Gaga's usual antics, but to me it highlighted how the singer doesn't really need to rely on big production values to impress or amaze. Despite still not liking the song (see my review here), I can't deny Gaga her props as a world class performer.

Watch Lady Gaga perform Born this way live below