The able-bodied star has caused outrage among disability groups after she wheeled herself on in front of 1,000 people at the Sydney Town Hall.
Six songs into the ten song set, Gaga went off for a costume change and came on in a wheelchair wearing a PVC mermaid tail before launching into her single You And I.
But although her fans went crazy for the performance, it was met with disapproval from some disability organisations and advocacy groups.
In a statement to RadarOnline, Jesse Billauer, founder of the Life Rolls On Foundation, fumed: ‘I haven’t seen Lady Gaga’s performance, but respect her artistic expression as an artist. Since this isn’t the first time she has used a wheelchair in her performances, I invite her to learn more about the 5.6 million Americans who live with paralysis.
I extend a personal invitation to Lady Gaga to attend one of our Life Rolls On events where quadriplegics and paraplegics surf, skate, and snowboard, so she can see how much is possible beyond a wheelchair. Maybe that will be most shocking to her of all. They, like me, unfortunately, don’t use a wheelchair for shock value.’
And The Roman Reed Foundation, which promotes spinal cord injury research, took to its Twitter page to write: ‘Dear @ladygaga how about using your celebrity status 2 try 2 get us out of wheelchairs. Instead of cruising one. Cool?!’
This isn’t the first time Gaga has used a wheelchair as a prop - she is seen being wheeled into a hotel in the video for her hit song Paparazzi wearing a neck brace after being pushed off a balcony by her lover.
Gaga is not the first music artists to use a wheelchair as a prop and many said she had ripped off Bette Midler’s famous stage character Delores Delago, a beached mermaid that appears on stage in a wheelchair.
