Lady Gaga dives into Super Bowl history

She jumped off the roof of Houston’s NRG stadium and bathed in the light of hundreds of drones – but Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl show was fairly restrained… by her standards.

The star only changed costume twice, letting her music do the talking in a 12-minute, hit-laden set.

She opened with Woody Guthrie’s civil rights anthem This Land Is Your Land, a gentle but pointed rebuke to the Trump administration; which she reinforced by performing Born This Way – her hymn to acceptance and inclusion.

“No matter black, white or beige… I was born to be brave,” she sang to an expected US TV audience of 110 million.

But Gaga refrained from overt sermonising, simply saying: “We’re here to make you feel good” (and, later on, “hello mum”).

Ahead of the Super Bowl, the star said her show would be “inclusive” and celebrate “the spirit of equality”. Sponsors Pepsi simply said it would be “uniquely Gaga”.

And, while she didn’t hatch from an egg (as at the 2011 Grammy Awards) or smear herself in blood (2009’s Monster Ball tour), it was certainly spectacular.

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Gaga first appeared 79 metres above the crowd, as a swarm of drones hovered behind her; twinkling in the sky before adopting the colours of the stars and stripes during Woody Guthrie’s left-wing anthem.

“One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” said the star, who promptly did a swan-dive from the roof, landing on a towering, torch-like structure several stories below.

There, she launched into a dizzying medley of hit singles including Poker Face, Just Dance and Telephone, backed by an army of dancers.

Her vocals were strong and resonant throughout – although the intricate choreography left her out of breath for the set’s sole ballad, Million Reasons.