MEXICO CITY – The religious resentment caused by the premiere of her “Judas” video are not keeping Lady Gaga awake at nights – she defends her message of pardon in the song and says that it is more about ex-boyfriends, betrayal and forgiveness.
“Who doesn’t sometimes feel like Judas, misunderstood, criticized by everyone, needing to be pardoned?” the American pop singer-songwriter said Friday at a massive press conference in the Mexican capital, where she arrived on her Monster Ball Tour a few days before its wrap.
Compared with Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” in the 1980s – in which a black Christ appeared – “Judas” presents Jesus Christ with Latin features and his apostles as a motorcycle gang in Los Angeles and Lady Gaga herself as Mary Magdalene.
The traitor Judas is played by Norman Redus, a cult actor for his role of a street avenger with religious overtones in “The Boondocks Saints.”
The song helped him move beyond a bad experience and realize something: “To overcome the darkness in your life, you have to forgive.”
“Who doesn’t sometimes feel like Judas, misunderstood, criticized by everyone, needing to be pardoned?” the American pop singer-songwriter said Friday at a massive press conference in the Mexican capital, where she arrived on her Monster Ball Tour a few days before its wrap.
Compared with Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” in the 1980s – in which a black Christ appeared – “Judas” presents Jesus Christ with Latin features and his apostles as a motorcycle gang in Los Angeles and Lady Gaga herself as Mary Magdalene.
The traitor Judas is played by Norman Redus, a cult actor for his role of a street avenger with religious overtones in “The Boondocks Saints.”
The song helped him move beyond a bad experience and realize something: “To overcome the darkness in your life, you have to forgive.”
The religious setting is used only for its power as a metaphor to communicate, Lady Gaga said.
Though she kept the press waiting more than two hours – they had to plead with her to come down from her hotel room – Lady Gaga’s smiles overcame any ill feelings.
“I wanted to be perfect for you,” she said, looking glamorous in a semitransparent blue dress, a blond and brown wig and a sparkling necklace.
The two-hour concert she gave Thursday night at Mexico City’s Foro Sol attracted 55,000 fans. She gave another concert there Friday night and will perform Saturday at Madison Square Garden in her native New York to close the tour.
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