A decade ago, a Grammy-winning artist’s concert gained controversy in the predominantly Catholic Philippines since one of her songs is titled after the traitor who notoriously betrayed Jesus.
A concert-oriented page recalled how American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga held an eventful two-night concert in Pasay in which she was warned against singing her song “Judas.”
“Exactly 10 years ago, Lady Gaga was warned not to sing ‘Judas’ in Manila or she will be arrested. Lady Gaga: ‘I’m not a creature of your government, Manila’ before singing ‘Judas,'” Philippine Concerts wrote on Facebook on May 22.
It also accompanied a screengrab of the artist’s tweet posted on the second day of her concert, where she made a reference to one of her song’s music videos.
“And don’t worry, if I get thrown in jail in Manila, Beyonce will just bail me out. Sold out night 2 in the Philippines. I love it here!” Lady Gaga tweeted before.
It was a reference to her collaboration with Beyonce for “Telephone,” one of her songs in her “The Fame Monster” album.
Meanwhile, the throwback post of Philippine Concerts has earned a whopping number of 53,000 likes and reactions, 1,600 comments, and 11,000 shares so far.
Filipinos also recalled some incidents involving two-night concert
“I remember some people and nuns were in front of the concert, praying,” a Facebook user claimed.
“I remember me (and) my cousin are going to watch this and we received a lot of backlash from family members,” another online user claimed.
Others appealed for her to go back and grace Manila once more.
“Daming kuda. Balik ka na dito accla!” a fan commented.
“Accla, balik ka na dito sa Pinas,” another fan said.
#Throwback
The artist visited Manila on May 21 and 22, 2012 for her “Born This Way Ball Tour” in support of her second studio album, “Born This Way.”
Former Manila mayor Lito Atienza and lawyer Romulo Macalintal were among those who raised objections against her singing one of her songs in the album, “Judas.”
According to them, Lady Gaga might be penalized or arrested if she sings her controversial song which they believe mocks Jesus.
Then-Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles also urged the public to boycott her concerts as “her fans are in danger of falling into the clutches of Satan.”
The Pasay government also bared plans to deploy personnel to monitor the concert for “any nudity or lewd conduct which may be offensive to morals and good customs.”
This didn’t stop Lady Gaga from performing her song.
“I’m not a creature of your government, Manila,” she declared before her fans.
Late entertainment writer Ricky Lo previously referenced an interview that featured the artist’s explanation of the song. He quoted the following, taken from Popjustice:
“The first time Lady Gaga played us the tune she told us that in broad terms it was about being in love with the worst guy you’ve ever met, but as you might expect there’s more to it than that. ‘It’s about leaving your darkness behind in order to come into the light,’ she added the other day. ‘I have a lot of things that have haunted me from my past—choices, men, drug abuse, being afraid to go back to New York, confronting old romances—and Judas represents, for me, something that is bad for me that I can’t escape. I keep going back and forth between the darkness and the light in order to understand who I am.'”
Lady Gaga has so far released three solo studio albums and two collaborative albums after “Born This Way.”