Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Israel Goes Gaga!

Israeli music fans know how to treat a Lady.

Image by Getty Images

That is the hope, in any case, as one of the biggest pop breakthroughs of recent years makes her way to Tel Aviv. Lady Gaga, responsible for several of 2009’s most ubiquitous hits, will take the stage August 19 at the city’s Non Stop Musix Festival, a two-day event also featuring Canadian hit makers Simple Plan, English indie rockers Kaiser Chiefs, and Israeli artists Aviv Geffen and Hadag Nahash.

In a summer concert season bringing the 1980s (Suzanne Vega, Pet Shop Boys) and earlier decades (Leonard Cohen) back to Israel, the Lady Gaga show marks a rare performance by a musician plugging her debut album — and still leaving her mark on global music charts. In July, “Love Game,” the singer’s most recent single, became the third Lady Gaga track to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it looks likely to remain in the top 10 when the singer arrives in Tel Aviv.

Born Stefani Germanotta, the 23-year-old New Yorker is sandwiching her Israel visit between concerts in China and the United States, and should make for one of the more unusual sights in Tel Aviv this summer. Beloved by paparazzi for her glittery, asymmetrical outfits and unconventional accessories, the singer will spend several days in Israel, where she’s already made a splash with some of her pre-show requests. Noting hot soup was among the items reportedly on the list, a writer for the Israeli news and entertainment Web site Makos wrote jokingly, “Apparently they didn’t bother to update her regarding the weather here” in August.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.