Lady Gaga dropped into Fortnite Festival season 2 just a few days ago, and she’s already shaking up the battle royale—not only with her themed cosmetics, but also with her actual presence. Yes, it appears that Lady Gaga—the woman who once asked “what is fortnight?”—is playing Fortnite. And she’s not the only pop girly dropping out of the Battle Bus—Kesha apparently downloaded the game and started playing it yesterday, too.
Not long after Lady Gaga’s Fortnite Festival season 2 cosmetics and jam tracks dropped, Mother Monster herself shared a post to Instagram celebrating the collab. “Music. Fashion. Technology. Digital rain for my skin to dance in. Best day ever. We loved combining these worlds so we could experience music on a whole other level. Feels like this was meant to be. Immersive experiences with art I think really leave an imprint on the soul and it changes the textures of how we experience pop culture. I love Fortnite*. Monsters enjoy!”
The post includes a few press clips and images from Epic Games, including 3D looks at Gaga’s in-game character models, but what everyone is honing in on is one clip that appears to be a recording of the monitor of someone playing Fortnite. Gaga scholars believe this is Stefani Germanotta herself playing the game—not just because she posted it, nor because the video is clearly a cell phone recording of a monitor zoomed in to crop out any identifying features (not a screen recording). No, people (myself included) think Lady Gaga is actually playing Fortnite because the player in the video is doing Gaga’s “Rain On Me” dance emote in the storm, and slowly dying. The clip cuts out right before the player would have gotten downed by the storm damage. This is new player energy. This must be Gaga.
Though Gaga doesn’t say flat-out that she’s climbing onto the Battle Bus and dropping in with us normies, at least one other pop princess is: Kesha. On February 21, Kesha asked “how do I get Fortnite” on her X (formerly Twitter) account, not long after Gaga’s collab was announced. The next day, she shared several posts chronicling her Fortnite journey. “Never played a video game in my life but readyyyyy,” she wrote alongside a picture of her Fortnite character wearing Gaga’s Chromatica Armor outfit. Brilliantly, hilariously, the picture includes Kesha’s gamertag, which is simply “keshaishot.”
Moments later, Kesha shared a picture (one that’s also clearly taken of a television screen rather than a screengrab, I love how the pop girlies’ minds work) of her dropping out of the Battle Bus. “OH MY GOD IM FALLING,” she wrote. Then, clearly playing the build mode version of Fortnite, Kesha shared another grainy cell phone photo of her character mid-build. “Should I build a studio here?” she wondered. The last post she shared, and the one still currently at the top of her timeline, shows her character mid-death. She captured the picture just as the words “You Placed” appeared on the screen, but right before her placement number popped up—clever girl, now we won’t know how well—or poorly—you did. “OMG,” the final post reads. And ya know what, Kesha, I concur.
The inclusion of Lady Gaga in the Fortnite universe is a win for the pop girlies and gays across the globe—TikTok has been flooded with people posting about Fortnite Festival Season 2, sharing their squads composed of Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and Scarlet Witch (mother), and posting videos of Gaga dancing over a downed player. Gaga’s influence is so massive that her Fortnite collab is even courting new players like Kesha—and, bizarrely, herself. See you at Ruined Reels, Mother Monster.