Lady Gaga Brings Chaos and 'Mayhem' To Toronto

Mother Monster has made her return to Toronto bringing her Mayhem Ball Tour to the city for 3 unforgettable nights that will leave her most hardcore Little Monsters speechless. From her incredibly dazzling showcase at Coachella, to breaking attendance records at Copacabana this year, Lady Gaga has revamped and upscaled her promotional Mayhem tour into something that will leave your jaw on the floor. As the opera house takes shape in Toronto, so does the intense story behind it.

This was my eighth time seeing Lady Gaga live. After the fallout and FOMO I had from missing Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour last year, I was extremely nervous to see what trying to obtain tickets for The Mayhem Ball would be like. I knew that there was going to be absolutely zero chance of missing this, I saw the Monster Ball twice, the Born This Way Ball, artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball, the Joanne World Tour twice, and the Chromatica Ball tour, so even if I had to pay scalper prices, so be it. I was lucky to have this time won the war with Ticketmaster, I didn't care where I sat, I just had to be there. Being in the last row of section 322 at Scotiabank arena, I was pleased to say I had a tremendous view of the stage.

Act I: Of Velvet & Vice

When the lights dimmed and an ominous opera intro started, I could feel the excitement build in me as the two story dress slowly emerged on stage and an orchestral version of 'Bloody Mary' was creepily sung out. The front of the dress opened to reveal a cage with Gaga's dancers trapped inside as Gaga proceeded to run into what I think is the best mashup of songs she has ever done on a tour, 'Abracadabra', 'Judas', 'Aura', and my all time favourite song, 'Scheiße'. We learn that the tour is built around a story of duelling twins, one who embraces their dark side, and one who shines in the light. Finishing act one with 'Garden of Eden', and the two Gaga's fighting on a chess board with 'Poker Face', we move from Miss Mayhem, over to the lighter perspective of the twins.

Act II: And She Fell Into A Gothic Dream

The second act starts with the lighter side of Gaga waking up in a grave as she's singing out 'Perfect Celebrity'. As her dancers also awaken from their deaths they move into 'Disease' where Miss Mayhem appears again to take on Gaga. Though the feud lasting short, Gaga wins this fight as Miss Mayhem crawls away, and Gaga takes time to heal during 'Paparazzi'. While the storyline continues, the lighter side of Gaga goes on to embrace more of her darker side as she performs 'LoveGame', 'Alejandro' and 'The Beast', before leaving the stage for a set and costume change.

Act III: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name

A giant skull appears right in the middle of the stage, and standing in the eye socket is Gaga, dressed in a beautiful large black dress with red roses attached to the sides, and a black crown sitting perfectly on top of her head. Moving into what I would call the more of a Halloween set, Gaga starts this act off with 'Killah', & 'Zombieboy' seamlessly transitioning the songs into one another. She disappears for a brief moment and returns in a new costume walking up a curved stair case to perform her newest single 'The Dead Dance' that was released for Wednesday season 2. The nightmare continues as Gaga moves into what is my favourite song off MAYHEM as she belts out 'LoveDrug', which transitions into her ARTPOP song 'Applause', and her debut single 'Just Dance', before the darkness consumes Gaga as she slips away into madness stating she loves Miss Mayhem's madness and her dreams.

Act IV: Every Chess Board Has Two Queens

With Gaga embracing her darker side, she returns in a black wig, to perform 'Shadow Of A Man', 'Kill For Love', and 'Summerboy'. With the darker tone Gaga explains to the crowd sometimes we were truly born with something unique inside all of us before performing her hit single ‘Born This Way’. The song ends with almost a Phantom Of The Opera style instrumental as organs and harpsichords start playing out to an orchestra bass and choir harmonies. Miss Mayhem returns atop of the two story dress holding a lantern beckoning Gaga forward as she sings ‘Million Reasons’. Embracing each other, the duelling twins have now come to terms with one another, and Miss Mayhem leads Gaga onto a boat to the underworld while she performs a restructured version of ‘Shallow’. Arriving at the piano Gaga sings out a solo rendition of her hit song with Bruno Mars ‘Die With A Smile’, before surprising fans with an acoustic rendition of ‘The Edge of Glory’.

Speaking to the crowd Gaga thanked Toronto for always supporting her, and thanked Canada for believing in her before anywhere else would as ‘Just Dance’ went number one in Canada before it reached that peak elsewhere. She then asked the crowd if they would return in 20 years to see her perform, and if not, she would prop her piano on a Toronto street corner and play for whoever would stop. Lady Gaga finished the main bulk of her show with ‘Vanish Into You’, using ‘Bad Romance’ as the shows finale, and ‘How Bad Do U Want Me’ as the encore. To make each show unique Gaga has been playing an exclusive encore song and Toronto night three got her Born This Way song ‘Hair’.

Gaga has just wrapped up the first North American leg of her Mayhem Ball Tour, before she arrives in Europe this fall. Be sure to catch her at one of her upcoming shows as this is something you do not want to miss!

You can listen to her latest album MAYHEM on Apple Music and Spotify below: