WATCH UNCENSORED LADY GAGA ALEJANDRO MUSIC VIDEO ON THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM
Lady Gaga--who famously revealed to Barbara Walters in her 2009 "Most Interesting People" interview that she herself is bisexual, and whose hit "Poker Face" dealt with that topic--has long been an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community. She's appeared on the cover of Out magazine, marched for gay rights in D.C., received a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Musical Artist, and headlined/hosted a benefit concert for marriage equality, among other activist activities. When she picked up her VMA moonman at last year's MTV Video Music Awards, she even proudly held it aloft and declared, "This is for God and the gays!" But she has never addressed gay issues as directly or politically in a video as she does in her compelling new clip, "Alejandro."
In her outlandish past videos, Gaga has appeared in a futuristic wheelchair, pranced around a fiery bathhouse, and embarked on a "Thelma-&-Louise"-style road trip with Beyonc, but in the just-premiered "Alejandro," she is uncharacteristically serious. The classy black-and-white clip, lensed by high-fashion photographer/Madonna collaborator Steven Klein, is a seven-minute "celebration of my love and appreciation for the gay community, my admiration of their bravery, their love for one another, and their courage in relationships," according to Gaga's June 1 interview with CNN's Larry King, during which she premiered a short teaser of the "Alejandro" video.
Of course, now that the full "Alejandro" is out, we can all see that it's not a blatant political PSA--as with all Gaga videos, it's a piece of performance art, open to interpretation. But the video's vaguely "Rhythm Nation"-reminiscent vibe, not to mention what Gaga described to King as its "homoerotic military theme," could be construed as a creative critique of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. And the video's wardrobe of nun's habits and other religious imagery could be viewed as references to the Catholic Church's demonization of homosexuality.
The Catholic imagery in particular is reminiscent of works by Gaga's obvious predecessor, the aforementioned Madonna, another pop female whose conflicted feelings about religion have been explored in her own videos such as "Oh Father" and the banned "Like a Prayer." As Gaga told King: "I struggle with my feelings about the Church in particular....in terms of religion, I'm very religious. I was raised Catholic. I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. I'm very spiritual. I pray very much. But at the same time, there is no one religion that doesn't hate or speak against or be prejudiced against another racial group or religious group, or sexual group. For that, I think religion is also bogus. So I suppose you could say I'm a quite religious woman that is very confused about religion. And I dream and envision a future where we have a more peaceful religion or a more peaceful world, a more peaceful state of mind for the younger generation. And that's what I dream for."
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