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Lady Gaga's Choreographer Richy Jackson Shares Secrets Behind Her 2020 VMAs Performance

By Allison Crist Sep 01, 2020 10:18 PMTags

Richy Jackson is on cloud nine!

Lady Gaga's choreographer and visual director stopped by Daily Pop on Tuesday, Sep. 1 fresh off the 2020 MTV VMAs, where Gaga and Ariana Grande performed moves he devised as they belted out "Rain On Me."

"I'm just so happy that we had a fantastic performance and that we got to perform live," Jackson told E! co-host Carissa Culiner, adding that it was a welcome to change "just being out there and out of the house."

Lady Gaga's longtime collaborator credited the triple-threat herself for the performance's "entire vision," which also included her songs "Stupid Love," "911" and multitude of visual elements, from a '90s throwback VMAs ceremony on an old television to all things space and Chromatica.

Gaga continually changed outfits throughout the performance (and every time she'd take the stage to accept an award), but her high-tech mask stayed the same while she was singing. 

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See the Winners of the 2020 MTV VMAs

"She had this idea of, how do we make the mask cool and with technology?" Jackson recalled. "She was like it'd be amazing if we could have a mask where she could sing and you could see the waves of her vocals coming through."

And that's exactly what Gaga came up with thanks to the team at Smooth Technology.

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Lady Gaga's Many Masks at the 2020 MTV VMAs
Earl Gibson III/WireImage

As for Ari's involvement in the "Rain On Me" gig, Richy said she "allowed herself and wanted to just completely come into our world."

"Because we had the 'Rain On Me' experience from the video, I think this time for her was more about us just sort of doing what we did before, which is Ari coming into Gagaland but singing live, performing live and actually doing it on stage."

The choreographer also described Ariana as "so cool" and "so respectful." 

"We were just happy to get a great performance," he added. "I mean, and who would've ever thought you'd actually see those two on stage?"

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Here's Proof Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande Will Always Reign Supreme at the VMAs

In addition to collaborating with stars like Gaga, Richy is also developing up-and-coming artist Zack Zilla.

Richy directed and choreographed Zack's new video for the song 'We Are Saving the World,' which will debut on Sep. 11.

"He can sing he can dance, he can flip. He's going to bring people together through his music," Richy told E!

Watch the complete Daily Pop clip in the above video.