This is Lady Gaga’s most emotional performance. “The Edge of Glory” is not only an iconic Gaga hit, it’s also a deeply personal story that she wrote about her late grandfather. Before a heartbreaking solo piano performance on The Howard Stern Show, Gaga spoke about the song’s meaning, saying “it’s about knowing in your heart that you may not know you never reach that glorious moment until you die, so live life on the edge, halfway between heaven and hell, and let’s all dance in the middle in purgatory.”
Nobody can hit you in the chest like Gaga when it’s just her playing solo at a piano. The power of her voice to touch your heart is up there with the all-time greats, especially when paired with her brilliant piano playing. The Music Man readers will definitely want to tune into the big moment in the bridge just after the three-minute mark, where Gaga delivers a spine-tingling a cappella vocal climax.
Viewers kept coming back to the performance, which drew 4.3 million views. Fans couldn’t get enough of Mother Monster’s emotional intensity here, and added comments such as “I am one of those people who cries when I am overwhelmed by talented singers. Tears. Full shivers too!! She is amazing” and “Still the single best musical performance in the show’s history.”
“The Edge of Glory” is clearly a very special song for Gaga, as she delivered several notable live performances centered around the song. During the Joanne World Tour, she dedicated the song to her “dear friend” Sonja Durham, who had lost her battle with breast cancer earlier that year. Durham had acted as Gaga’s live show executive director since 2009, and the pair had become very close, as Gaga recounts during the performance.
Gaga released “The Edge of Glory” on May 9, 2011, as the third single from her second studio album Born This Way. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that the New York City star co-wrote the song with Fernando Garibay and Paul Blair, with Gaga and Garibay also handling production.
Gaga was inspired to write the song after the death of her grandfather, Giuseppe (Joseph) Germanotta, who passed on September 24, 2010. The lyrics were inspired by her grandparents’ 60-year marriage. Prior to their marriage, the pair were forbidden to be together due to her grandmother’s strict family.
The moment of glory that Gaga mentioned in the Howard Stern interview referred to the look of triumph on her grandfather’s face the last time she saw him, as he was in his hospice, that she recalled seemed to say “‘I won’ like I’m a champion.”
