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The Mayhem Ball \u2013 the concert tour for Lady Gaga\u2019s 2025 album Mayhem \u2013 is set to conclude in April after a global run. The tour delivered everything fans have come to expect from the artist: spectacle, innovation and, above all, immersion in a gothic world.<\/p>\n
The production is bursting with macabre theatricality, including concepts and images associated with the gothic tradition<\/a>. Skeletons, doppelg\u00e4ngers, zombies, candelabra, cloaks, veils, dreams and nightmares are incorporated into intricate set designs and showstopping costumes. Themes of pain, death and rebirth frame the whole narrative of the show.<\/p>\n Gaga has often made interesting use of gothic motifs, so much so that she was a key source of inspiration for my new book Gothic Celebrity: Fame and Immortality from Lord Byron to Lady Gaga<\/a>. In it, I examine the intersection of celebrity culture and the gothic across literature, visual media and popular culture.<\/p>\n I started writing the book in 2016, inspired by a significant wave of celebrity deaths and the public\u2019s reactions to these losses \u2013 including David Bowie<\/a>, Prince<\/a> and George Michael<\/a>. These deaths unsettled many people because modern celebrity culture has established an expectation of the celebrity\u2019s immortality.<\/p>\n Described by some as the first celebrity, the Romantic poet Lord Byron\u2019s posthumous fame was maintained in the years following his death by various cultural artefacts. These included a statue in Cambridge University\u2019s Trinity College<\/a> and two illustrated books published by William and Edward Finden<\/a> in the 1830s.<\/p>\n In the 21st century, digital technology now serves this purpose. Three years after her death, actor Carrie Fisher was digitally resurrected<\/a> for her role as Princess Leia in the 2019 Star Wars film The Rise of Skywalker with the help of CGI. Holograms of deceased celebrities have also been used for music performances, such as in 2020 for An Evening with Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour<\/a>. <\/p>\nFame, immortality and the gothic<\/h2>\n