Lady Gaga earned raves for her Nov. 16 hosting gig on NBC's
Saturday Night Live. Her performance with
R. Kelly,
however, drew mixed reactions among critics. The musicians teamed up to
sing "Do What U Want," the second single off Gaga's just-released
album,
ARTPOP. Their racy duet—and the provocative choreography that came with it—had many viewers scratching their heads.
"Gaga
really brought the LOLZ when she was joined onstage by R. Kelly to
perform their song 'Do What U Want, ' which involved the two singers,
like, simulating really awkward sex. The dry humping! The pushups! The
fumbling ass slapping! This is the strangest sexual encounter R. Kelly's
had since, well, you know,"
The Frisky's Amelia McDonell-Parry wrote, referring to the R&B star's sex tape scandal.
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The Daily Mirror's Zoe Shenton was equally amused, writing,
"In a ridiculously OTT performance (what did we expect, really?), a sparkling catsuit-clad Lady Gaga and suited R. Kelly got
very friendly with each other."
Blogger
Necole Bitchie
threw even more shade, writing, "Lady Gaga is no stranger to
head-turning, jaw-dropping performances but this time around, she reeled
in R. Kelly to partake in her stage antics...Maybe this encounter
wouldn't have been half as bad if Kelz wasn't trying to get out of the
creepy, pervert box he kind of fell in over the years but this was
reminiscent of
Miley Cyrus and
Robin Thicke's MTV VMA performance. At least they are both single, fully-dressed, and Gaga managed to keep her tongue in her mouth."
As
MTV News' Kecli Shipley noted, "Neither of them seemed to exhibit any signs of performance anxiety."
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Likewise,
Idolator's
Carl Williott said the musicians displayed "sizzling chemistry" on
stage. "At one point, R. Kelly climbed on top of Gaga and most viewers
were surely bracing for something uncouth, and well, it didn't come to
that. Kells merely did a couple push-ups over Gaga's writhing body."
Entertainment Weekly's
Erin Strecker, meanwhile, left it to readers to decide whether the
singer's duet was appropriate. "If you're going way too far on purpose,
is it really way too far?" she pondered. "Watch R. Kelly join Lady Gaga
onstage for 'Do What U Want' and decide."
