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Inauguration: Watch Lady Gaga's emotional rendition of national anthem

The singer soars with a giant voice and an equally giant dove pin as President Joe Biden is inaugurated.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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Lady Gaga sings the national anthem at President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Lady Gaga sang the national anthem at President Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday, and neither her voice nor her outfit disappointed. The singer made headlines the day before the inauguration for a dramatic white getup that reminded people of  Star Wars heroine Princess Leia, but Gaga switched things up on Wednesday, appearing in a striking outfit with an enormous red skirt and a huge pin of a gold dove.

The singer tweeted about the importance of the moment.

"Singing our national anthem for the American People is my honor," she wrote. "I will sing during a ceremony, a transition, a moment of change -- between POTUS 45 and 46. For me, this has great meaning."

She followed up with a second tweet, writing, "My intention is to acknowledge our past, be healing for our present, and passionate for a future where we work together lovingly. I will sing to the hearts of all people who live on this land. Respectfully and kindly, Lady Gaga."

According to Harpers Bazaar, Gaga wore a custom Schiaparelli Haute Couture look designed by Daniel Roseberry, consisting of "a navy, cashmere fitted jacket and skirt in washed red silk faille with a gilded dove of peace brooch."

Gaga wasn't the only A-list performer to sing at the inauguration. She was followed by Jennifer Lopez in an all-white ensemble, performing Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land and segueing into America the Beautiful, with a little bit of Lopez's hit, Let's Get Loud. Lopez also spoke in Spanish, repeating a line from the Pledge of Allegiance: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Country singer Garth Brooks, dressed in all black, removed his black cowboy hat before he sang Amazing Grace. Brooks invited the audience as well as viewers at home to join in with him on the final verse, "as one, united."

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