Lashes - Love Game (Lady Gaga)

---

As the stage at the StarFactory goes dark, the audience cheer in a sort of half-hushed anticipation. For a few seconds, the arena remains in complete darkness, before a heavy bass drum sound starts to kick out a rather deliberate and consistent beat from somewhere on the stage, which is still absent of any light whatsoever. After a few seconds have passed, the drums stop the continuous beat, and the stage sits in silence again. Just then, a louder single drumbeat sounds, at the same time that a large "L" is illuminated on the backdrop of the stage. Another bass beat illuminates an "A" as the "L" goes dark again, followed by the "S", "H", "E" and "S". The stage then sits once again in darkness, before 5 quick drum beats illuminate the letters once again, one at a time. This time, they all stay on, displaying the name "LASHES" in ten foot high pink neon letters against the otherwise pitch black stage to the delight of the studio audience.

After a few short seconds, the synth led intro to Lady Gaga's Love Game starts to play around the arena, just as the lights come on on the stage once again, revealing a lone figure on stage. Standing directly in the centre of the stage, her arms wrapped around a stripper's pole is Natalya Dobros, the youngest member of Lashes and former exotic dancer. As she sings the intro to the track, she runs her hands seductively up and down the pole, emphasing her movement on the word "Stick".

Let's have some fun,
This beat is sick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick
Let's have some fun,
This beat is sick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick



Once the mid-paced synthesiser comes back in, the rest of Lashes, Gemma Kane, Lily-Rose Cardle and Mercedes Gomez join Natalya at the front of the stage, backed in the low light by a line of topless muscly male dancers who march in time to the music on the spot. Each of the girls is dressed rather scantily, aside from Lily-Rose, who considers herself the most sensible and wholesome of the band, and they dance in suggestive styles throughout the musical interlude of the track. For the first verse, as the rest of the girls gyrate and dance with the male backing dancers at the rear of the stage, Gemma walks to the front and sings. She moves her hand slowly up and down her thigh and throws her hair slowly from side-to-side as she continues to stare into the camera and at the judges down in front of the stage.

I wanna kiss you
But if I do then I might miss you babe
It's complicated and stupid
Got my ass squeezed by sexy Cupid
Guess he wants to play,
Wants to play
A love game
A love game



As the chorus approaches, the three other girls rejoin Gemma at the front of the stage, where they all stand back to back in a small circle, surrounded be the backing dancers. They each throw their head back and bend their knees in unison as the group of dancers link arms and sway around them slowly, occasionally closing the circle around them, the girls reaching out to grab at the dancers, as if they have been bound together, only for their objects of desire to back off, leaving them stranded centre-stage.
When the chorus comes in, upbeat and dancey, both circles break and the girls sing in unison at the front of the stage, each of them moving and slowly slithering in slightly different fashions, while the lights around them flash alternately between pink and red.

Let's play a love game,
Play a love game
Do you want love or you want fame?
Are you in the game?
Dans le love game?

Clearly a lover of the attention, as the camera alternates between the girls at the end of the chorus, Mercedes drops to her knees for her vocal section. The other three take up their positions in the extremities of the stage, each teasing and taunting one of the backing dancers, as Mercedes crawls to the front of the stage slowly, her slow moves looking to seduce who she is clearly staring at on the judging panel; Hayden Merjos. Her eyes are fixated on him the entire time she is singing, moving ever closer to the front of the stage where the judges are seated. When she eventually reaches the front of the stage, she gets up on her knees, wagging a finger to Hayden, telling him to "come hither" before she grabs his tie and stands him up. She holds the palm of her hand up, kissing it and the runs her hand gently over Hayden's cheek, before smiling at him and letting go of his tie. She then throws her head from side to side to the heavy bass notes of the pre-chorus as she listens to the track, before getting back to her feet, and walking back to her position, her eyes fixed on Hayden the entire time.

I'm on a mission,
And it involves some heavy touchin' yeah.
You've indicated your interest,
I'm educated in sex, yes.
And now I want it bad,
Want it bad.
A love game,
A love game.



After another chorus, during which pink love hearts appear and disappear to the beats of the music underneath the LASHES sign at the back of the stage, the stage goes dark once more. A few seconds later, a shallow bass noise, much like the beating of a heart starts, and the spotlight comes on in the middle of the stage to show Natalya back in position alongside the stripper's pole. She grips it and slides down it as she slowly sings it, allowing every word to pour out of her mouth as she stares down the camera lens. When she finishes, and chants And A Game! Over and over, she spins around and around the pole, the lights on the stage coming back on so that all the girls are in view for the final chorus.

I can see you staring there from across the block with a smile on your mouth and your hand on your huh
The story of us it always starts the same with a boy and a girl and a huh and a game!
And a game
And a game
And a game
A love game!

Natalya remains on her pole for the rest of the finale, while the others gyrate and dance around one male dancer each, singing the whole time. As the chorus, and the song comes to an end, each of them push their dancer onto a chair and then straddle him, turning to stare out at the audience, just as Lily-Rose repeats the last line, and the sexy showpiece comes to an end, allowing the girls to soak up the adulation.

Let's play a love game!