Lady Gaga Serves on SNL, Doechii Gets Her Flowers, And Rebecca Black Joins Katy Perry
Your weekend entertainment roundup.
Lady Gaga Lights Up SNL Stage
To finish off her album release week, Lady Gaga took to SNL to perform double duty as both host and musical performer. Needless to say, Mother Monster absolutely killed her performances and completely made the storied SNL stage her own.
In her first of two performances, Gaga sang her single “Abracadabra” in a red rhinestoned body suit and flawlessly executed the music video’s intense choreography. Despite the quick dance moves, her mic was most certainly ON proving she can still run vocal circles around most other pop girls. Under strobing lights, Gaga and her incredible dancers brought ball culture to the stage with exciting energy.
Her second performance was of the Mayhem track “Killah.” A Prince and Bowie-esque rock romp, Gaga effortlessly showed her range and gave a stellar performance featuring a drum solo and a Led Zeppelin-like scream. No matter the genre, no matter the place, no matter the pressure, Gaga will always turn it out.
A highlight of the sketches was the “No More Slay” musical number performed alongside Bowen Yang. The two made a mockery of current online slang singing, “on the day before the world ends, you don’t want the last thing that you say to be ‘this is not a slay.’” In reference to the current nachos discourse online (which we definitely did not feature in our Gaga album review :)), the duo sang, “No more reheating nachos. That one’s actually new but let’s just nip it in the bud before CNN learns it too.” Okay, note taken.
Gaga will further her work with cast member Yang as a guest this Wednesday on his culture podcast with fellow queer comedian Matt Rogers, Las Culturistas. It takes every ounce of strength to not call this a slay.
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Doechii Is Billboard’s Woman of the Year for 2025
Billboard announced that Doechii will receive the prestigious award at the Billboard Women in Music event on March 29. The rap star was awarded Billboard’s Music Rising Star Award in 2023 and since then has shot into the music scene.
Editorial director Hannah Karp said of the artist, “With her genre-blending sound, Doechii is redefining what it means to be a trailblazer in the music industry.”
Following her Grammy and NAACP award wins in the past month, Doechii has yet to slow down and recently released her TikTok hit “Anxiety.” The track, which samples “Somebody That I Used to Know,” was originally released by Doechii on YouTube in 2019 but following the recent TikTok trend, the artist wasted no time in putting it out and capitalizing on its success. It is this artistic hunger and business sense that no doubt makes her worthy of this exciting award.
Rebecca Black Joins Katy Perry on Tour
If you only remember Miss Rebecca Black from her absolutely iconic 2011 hit “Friday,” you are severely missing out. Over the last few years, Black has evolved into a full-fledged star who has been consistently serving sickening sapphic electronic pop songs. Katy Perry seems to agree with Black’s future icon status as the pair revealed that Black will join Perry’s minimally anticipated Lifetimes Tour.
Perry made a surprise appearance at Black’s concert in Los Angeles on March 9 to perform her class “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” and to ask Black to join her on tour in a full, bent-knee, wedding-esque proposal.
The Lifetimes Tour, which is set to start in late April, will supposedly follow Perry’s recently announced all-female flight into space with Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. It has been reported that the space travel will take place this spring which leaves little time between now and the tour. Who needs tour rehearsals when you can just go to space instead?
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The Last of Us To Return Gayer Than Ever
Max’s hit television adaptation of video game The Last of Us is returning for a second season which will be released on April 13. This season will feature a beloved romance between Ellie (played by queer actor Bella Ramsey), one of the show’s main characters, and Dina (played by Isabela Merced).
The trailer released this week featured glimpses into some of the pair’s most iconic scenes from the game and offers a lot for sapphic fans to be excited for.
Related: Lisa Cholodenko’s ‘High Art’ Gets A Stunning 4K Restoration And New York Premiere
South By Southwest’s Queer Programming
The iconic Austin film festival is currently underway and boy is it gay. Featuring a large amount of queer films this year, we thought we’d give a little sneak peek into some of the festival’s picks.
SALLY
In 1983, Sally Ride was the first American woman to make it to space. She became a hero to women all over the world who saw that they could be capable of truly anything. While her legacy was well known, her queerness was not revealed until her death in 2012.
This documentary, directed by journalist and documentarian Cristina Costantini, won the festival’s Alfred P. Sloan Science-in-Film Prize. The film documents Ride’s life and features Ride’s partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, who tells the story of their love for the first time.
“I wanted to make this film for anyone who’s ever had to hide part of who they are to get where they want to be. And I think, unfortunately, in 2025, this experience is going to be more real than ever,” says director Costantini. “In a time that’s filled with so much hatred, it feels radical to celebrate scientists, but, most of all, to celebrate love.”
Assembly
This documentary follows artist Rashaad Newsome as he takes over a former military facility and transforms it into a queer artistic utopia. The exhibition, which explored Black and queer identity, uses dance, music, poetry, and even a non-binary AI to explore themes of injustice, resilience, and community. Featuring the voices and performances of Black trans women, the film offers a look into the collective communal power of art to unite.
She’s The He
Playing on the far-right trans bathroom hysteria, this indie comedy tells the story of two high school seniors who decide to pretend to be trans so they can sneak into the women’s bathroom. First-time writer-director Siobhan McCarthy was inspired by She’s the Man and wanted to make trans stories they had wanted when they were younger.
McCarthy told Variety “I made a joke about, what if we took that conservative fear of [trans people] going into the bathrooms and we really played that out?” With almost the entire cast and crew made up of trans, nonbinary, and queer people, this film promises to be a wholly queer take on the current political moment.
Other queer titles at the festival include: Trans Memoria, Satisfaction, Last Call, I’m the Most Racist Person I Know, Creede USA, and 40 Acres.
