Before taking the stage in New York City, Lady Gaga received some wise advice from her fiancé, Michael Polansky. The 39-year-old Grammy winner was performing at Madison Square Garden on Friday for her Mayhem Ball tour’s hometown stop when she revealed the guidance she received.
“I think about walking on the concrete, going all around the city and just — I remember fighting really hard, fighting really hard for my dreams and what I believed in and for myself,” she told the concertgoers. “I was with my friend China before the show… and I said to her, ‘I think I might just fight my way through this whole show, ‘cause when I’m in New York, I fight. I gotta earn it, and I gotta go for it.’”
However, she said her perspective changed when both her friend China and fiancé Polansky, 41, encouraged her to take a different approach. “Sometimes you don’t have to fight, you just have to show up,” she recalled her friend’s words, adding that her fiancé gave her similar advice.
“Right before I came onstage, my fiancé, Michael, said, ‘When you go out there, let them fill you up.’”
The advice left the singer emotional as she introduced “Hair”—a track from her 2011 album Born This Way that she had not yet performed on this tour. She told the audience the album was inseparable from New York, noting, “I’m sure all my albums could not be made without New York, but I am sure that this album would not have been made without New York.”
“This is for all of you and for all your dreams, for maybe sometimes no more fighting, just showing up,” she added before launching into the song.
Gaga’s Mayhem Ball tour continues at Madison Square Garden on August 26 and 27, with two more New York dates on September 6 and 7.
