Lady Gaga says performing at President Joe Biden’s inauguration was “the honour” of her “lifetime”.
The 34-year-old singer took to the stage to deliver a rendition of the US national anthem at Biden’s inauguration on January 20, and she has now said she felt honoured to be asked to take part in the event, as she believes it was the perfect opportunity to “send an extended prayer” to everyone who has faced hardships over the last 12 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She told People magazine: "It was the honour of my lifetime. I wish to send an extended prayer out to all the people that live on this land, that you will feel whole, that you will feel loved, that we all work in the interest of building the beloved community together.”
Gaga has been helping with relief efforts throughout the ongoing pandemic, and has said she’s particularly passionate about helping small businesses who been devastated by the shutdown of their industries.
She explained recently: "What I'm looking forward to the most is making sure that small business owners and people that work for small businesses can get back to work and live their lives. My father runs a restaurant, and I've seen the true heartache it's caused him - and watching the way that restaurant owners have suffered is something my family knows intimately."
And the ‘Shallow’ singer even confessed a “very important” member of her family was taken ill with the virus and spent two months in hospital.
When asked what has been giving her hope over the past year, she said: "I got to be honest. I'm about to cry on the other end of this call with you because it's really - it's doctors, it's nurses, it's essential workers. I haven't spoken to this person about speaking about this publicly, but I will tell you that a very important member of my family was very, very ill recently and in the hospital for almost two months. I was in the ICU by myself many times because you can't go in with more than one person, if you can go in at all. I have never seen the heroic acts of bravery that I witnessed, watching these doctors and nurses and people that were cleaning at the hospitals."
