It’s starting to look very much like Lady Gaga, she of the Poker Face who was Born This Way, could soon be coming to Fortnite, possibly for a virtual concert of her own.
The most recent (and convincing) bit of evidence pointing at an online Gaga show comes from the Fortnite Leaks and Info account on Twitter, which recently dug up a “collaborative emote” called Jug Band that sounds very similar to the mega-hit Poker Face when four players take part in it. Shortly afterward, the Lady Gaga Now fan site posted a clip of the emote in action:
A new “synced emote” featuring Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” will be added to FORTNITE in the upcoming patch. pic.twitter.com/ie9VNEaswNAugust 30, 2022
Yeah, that’s definitely it. I’m not even what you’d call a casual Lady Gaga fan and there’s not a doubt in my mind, that’s P-p-p-poker Face. (Here’s the original (opens in new tab)—dare to compare.) And that’s not all: In July, “concert stage (opens in new tab)” assets for Fortnite Island including scaffolding and stacks leaked, leading to immediate excitement and speculation about who’s coming to town.
It’s possible that the upcoming emote is unrelated to a virtual visit from the Mother Monster. Epic Games announced earlier today that Lady Gaga is one of the artists, along with Janelle Monáe, Lil Nas X, Todrick Hall, King Princess, Kim Petras, and others, who will be heard on in-game radios during the Rainbow Royale (opens in new tab) festival celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community, which begins on September 8.
But the likelihood of something bigger was actually hinted at more than a year ago in court documents (opens in new tab) submitted as part of Epic’s ongoing beef with Apple. One of the slides in those documents has images of J Balvin, Ariana Grande, and Lady Gaga side by side, with months next to their names: Balvin (opens in new tab) and Grande (opens in new tab) have both taken part in virtual performances in Fortnite already, and it seems clear that at the very least, Epic was far enough along in negotiations for a Gaga appearance at one point that it was willing to commit to it on paper.
And lest anyone (who isn’t paying attention to Fortnite) think this sort of thing would be slumming for Lady Gaga, recall that Travis Scott earned a reported $20 million from his Fortnite show, and that was two years ago. That’s an awfully good reason to show up for a one-off online concert—even if you’re not entirely sure what Fortnite is.