All eyes were on Lady Gaga at the 2017 Super Bowl.
The pop singer's 13-minute set entertained millions of viewers, but unfortunately, several people decided to focus on her appearance rather than on her performance. Gaga responded to the body shaming via Instagram Tuesday, writing, "I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too. No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That's the stuff of champions."
"Thank you so much everyone for supporting me," Gaga added. "I love you guys."
Speaking to Ryan Seacrest on his syndicated KIIS-FM radio show Thursday, Gaga explained why she felt compelled to address the elephant in the room. "I couldn't ignore that I saw my fans talking about that and that it upset them," the 30-year-old singer said. "I think other people maybe that are just like normal girls and guys who either have their own body image issues or just didn't think it was a nice thing to say [were hurt]. I just thought I would impart some of my positive attitude about it so that they felt like they had someone who was strong on their side."
Before she performed on the world's biggest stage, Gaga watched "almost every" Halftime Show. "I looked at what really, really worked, and what I thought didn't work, what I thought was impactful visually, how to use the stadium, how to do something that was a little different but was still me. Ultimately what I discovered was, I thought less was more for me," she said. "Even though it probably didn't seem like that watching the show because it was so big, it was just a really cool stage with fire. There wasn't a lot of technology other than the 300 drones."
In fact, Gaga said her only challenge was regulating her breathing during the performance. "I just kept doing it over and over, and I worked up my stamina," the "Million Reasons" singer explained. "I worked out a lot, I trained a lot, and by the time it was showtime, I was ready."
After the show-stopping performance, Gaga's music sales soared—just as she announced her upcoming world tour. "I think that even if you have my music, or you don't have it, there's something about a live performance that can reignite the fan in you. It made me feel good," she told Seacrest. "What I wanted more than anything was for people to watch the Halftime Show and be transported for a second out of the game and out of life, really, and to a new dream."