Lady Gaga tore the roof off of NRG Stadium in Houston on Sunday with one of the greatest Super Bowl halftime shows in history and delivered not the barnstorming anti-Donald Trump protest some feared, but a subtle message of inclusion and unity. From the outset, Gaga served notice this was no ordinary halftime show -- she began her performance from the lip of the stadium roof, an army of 300 drones forming a twinkling American flag in the sky. Then she took flight (literally) at the end of the pre-recorded sequence. She opened with 'This Land is Your Land,' the anthem by leftist folk legend Woody Guthrie that has come to be seen as an alternative national anthem for the United States. Gaga then mixed up her biggest songs -- from 'Let's Dance' and 'Poker Face' to 'Born This Way' -- an anthem of inclusion in which she speaks of acceptance of people regardless of ethnicity or sexual orientation. Twitter lit up as she performed that second song in front of Vice President Mike Pence, which includes the line: 'No matter gay, straight or bi / Lesbian, transgendered life / I'm on the right track baby / I was born to survive.' And the platinum blonde pop star kicked off things off in a very big, and very patriotic way with a rendition of her 'America The Beautiful' sung from atop the stadium while hundreds of drones could be seen flying around in the night sky behind her. The singer was then lowered into the stadium and down onto the field to perform a number of her classic hits including 'Poker Face' and 'Born This Way.' Ahead of her high-profile performance, watched by more than 100 million U.S. viewers, Gaga, 30, said in a post on the Instagram social media network that she planned to headline the slot entirely on her own, eschewing a tradition of halftime main acts bringing on special guests. She did not have any guest performers opting instead to do a 13 minutes solo set as she rocked the Houston stadium during the face off between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. She kicked off her set wearing a silver sequinned body suit with padded shoulders and long sleeves which she paired with matching shiny boots. The outfit changed colors as it reflected the lighting and special effects in the stadium as she sang. The recording artist has said it was a childhood dream of hers to perfom at the Super Bowl. And as her dream came true, she gave a shoutout to her parents Cindy and Joe Germanotta. After sitting at a piano for a rendition of Million Reasons, she paused and said: 'Hey dad, hi mom.' With just 13 minutes at her disposal, Gaga could not pull off many changes of costume but by the end stripped off her metallic dress to perform in hot pants, football shoulder pads -- and the stiletto-heeled boots. She even changed her makeup, using peel-off crystals to alter her look to match her choice of song.
