Lady Gaga's Performance of 'Born This Way' at the 2011 Grammys was Disappointing

Lady Gaga's much hyped egg shell opened up on stage at the 2011 Grammy awards and she emerged in a wig pressed from the same mold as the one featured on her current Vogue cover. The key difference was the addition of an "I Dream of Jeannie"-esque ponytail.

Gaga actually used the ponytail to "Whip Her Hair" multiple times during the performance of "Born This Way" which could lead Lady Gaga naysayers away from accusing Gaga of copying every Madonna song ever written and allow them to start accusing her of copying the styling of Willow Smith.

The hair whipping ended up being kind of odd and out of place given the highly choreographed nature of the performance. The only Gaga song more rapidly choreographed would be portions of "Telephone" when it was performed by Gaga on tour without the in-person accompaniment of Beyoncé. "Bad Romance" doesn't even come in as a close second.

All and all Gaga's costume was kind of lovely as she danced back and forth across the stage with her rather large complement of back-up dancers. Despite the scantily clad freakish nature of the look, overall, it remained somehow more feminine than many of Gaga's dresses and bodysuits - maybe it was the addition of a lady's garden party hat with a cold compress twist? Thriller-esque zombie meets a half-dressed 1930s starlet attacked by the Wolfman and marked by the devil.

The Devil? Yes, in a way. "The way" being a slightly freakish holdover from the "Born This Way" single cover, Gaga's shoulder horns. While they were likely the result of photo manipulation in the photography, in her performance they were crafted. It looks as if Haus of Gaga used translucent plastic shoulder pads. The pads show through to the flesh but still give the illusion that Lady Gaga has horns growing from the tops of her shoulders. She also copied over the effect of temple horns to her forehead for the Grammy performance.

All and all the performance was an approximate 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 and could go far towards establishing the so-so song "Born This Way" with fans who don't consider themselves devoted "Little Monsters." However, when compared with other Gaga performances, this song and dance routine doesn't hold as much water. So far, her dynamic performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV-VMAs ranks supreme with her 2010 Grammy medley of a solo "Poker Face" and "Your Song" and "Speechless" with Sir Elton John running a close second as her best telecast performances.

Your paws may be up Gaga, but they aren't waving the sensational song or Grammy performance fans were expecting.