In case you needed to distract yourself on this here Friday, then this is the delightfully heartwarming news you were hopin’ for.
Lady Gaga gave an emotional performance at the Oscars on Sunday night (US time), where she sang ”Til It Happens To You’ and brought out dozens of sexual assault survivors onto the stage with her.
Watch Lady Gaga perform Til It Happens to you at the #Oscars here https://t.co/ptBYEAIKqq
— Lady Gaga Facts (@LGMonsterFacts) February 29, 2016
It was incredibly moving watching survivors join hands, and openly tell the world of their traumatic experience. It doesn’t even really have to be said that that would have been unbelievably difficult, and each and every survivor on that stage showed unimaginable strength in agreeing to be a part of it.
Well, it turned out that Gaga herself was not just the voice at the front, she was also a part of that group. She admitted last week that the performance was incredibly hard for her, because she was a survivor of sexual assault too. She also said that her family had absolutely no idea about it, and found out because of the performance.
Gaga said in an Instagram post that she struggled with the rehearsals for the performance, because it was so difficult to accept the “fear of knowing I would finally face that I belonged in that group”:
“The first day of rehearsal with all the survivors I could barely get myself together. My body was wrecked with inflammation and pain, crying and shaking the whole walk to the stage. The whole night before I did not sleep.The fear of knowing I would finally face that I belonged in that group. I told them I was so sorry I couldn’t be Lady Gaga for them, that I couldn’t even get dressed. I could barely get through the song, couldn’t hit any of the high notes. Hair wet, sloppy tee shirt jeans uggs, tissues.”They all hugged me and told me that it was okay because it was more real this way, that they understood that they were in pain too. They told me they were there for me to support me because they believed this message needed to be heard.Without them I never could have felt strong. They accepted me for me, at my lowest and that was good enough for them, so somehow through the magic of their courage they made it good enough for me too.”
Today, Gaga posted a Snapchat and photo to Twitter, showing that she and the other survivors involved in the performance had all gotten the same tattoo, to commemorate their achievement and bond.
The survivors on stage—including Lady Gaga—have gotten matching tattoos in solidarity. @ladygaga ?? pic.twitter.com/wZvXrRqfBT
— Elver ?? (@elverurbina1) March 4, 2016
Our hearts have literally grown about six sizes over the timespan of this story, we swear to god.
Including when we saw this .gif of Brie Larson hugging every single survivor as they walked off stage at the Oscars.
YOU GUYS, WE JUST CAN’T.
Source: E!
Photo: Twitter.
