Lady Gaga paused a concert in Tokyo this week to condemn the actions of ICE in an impassioned speech calling for “mercy”.
- READ MORE: Lady Gaga – ‘Mayhem’ review: queen of pop bombast dials everything up to eleven
During the penultimate night of her Japanese ‘Mayhem Ball‘ dates on Thursday (January 29), she touched on the need for unity and hope in the wake of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both shot and killed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in recent weeks.
Good, aged 37, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7, while Pretti, also aged 37, was killed on January 24 – with both incidents taking place less than a mile apart. Pretti was shot 10 times in five seconds by an ICE officer. Both Good and Pretti were US citizens, and the latter had been involved in the protests unfolding in the wake of Good’s death.
“We need to get back to a place of safety and peace and accountability,” Gaga told the audience at the Tokyo Dome.
“Good people shouldn’t have to fight so hard and risk their lives for well-being and respect. And I hope our leaders are listening; I hope you’re listening to us ask you to change your course of action swiftly and have mercy on everyone in our country.
“At a time where it doesn’t feel like it’s easy to have hope, it is my community and my friends, my family that hold me up.”
Lady Gaga condemns ICE in speech during her show in Japan. pic.twitter.com/AE8VMHxaTG
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 29, 2026
While introducing ‘Joanne‘ track ‘Come to Mama’ – itself a call for unity – she acknowledged it was unusual to be making these comments from abroad, but looked ahead to her return to the US tonight (February 1) ahead of the Grammys.
“I want to take a second to talk about something that’s extremely important to me. Something important to people all over the world and especially in America right now. In a couple of days, I’m gonna be heading home, and my heart is aching thinking about the people — the children, the families, all over America — who are being mercilessly targeted by ICE,” she said to applause.
“I’m thinking about all of their pain and how their lives are being destroyed right in front of us. I’m also thinking about Minnesota and everyone back at home who is living in so much fear and searching for answers on what we all should do. When entire communities lose their sense of safety and belonging, it breaks something in all of us.”
She then asked the crowd to “stand with us” and said ‘Come to Mama’ would be dedicated “to everyone who is suffering, to everyone who’s feeling alone and helpless, anyone who’s lost a loved one and is having a difficult time, an impossible time, seeing when the end will be near”.
Elsewhere, Billie Eilish has urged her “fellow celebrities” to “speak up” against ICE’s actions. Her brother and collaborator, Finneas, called out conservatives’ hypocritical gun law arguments in their attempts to justify the fatal shooting of Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse.
Other artists and celebrities to have spoken out include Sabrina Carpenter, Green Day, Neil Young, Moby, Zara Larsson, musician and Stranger Things star Joe Keery, Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal, Duran Duran, Dave Matthews and more.
Elsewhere this weekend, Tom Morello performed a slew of hits from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave as he led an ICE protest show in Minneapolis. The lunchtime show went down at the city’s legendary First Avenue venue on Friday (January 30), which was headlined by an unannounced appearance from Bruce Springsteen, who gave a live debut to his new anti-ICE song ‘Streets Of Minneapolis’.