WATCH: The 2008 Donald Trump-approved performance Lady Gaga hopes nobody remembers

As Lady Gaga readies to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the release of her blockbuster debut album The Fame on August 19th, we’re taking a look back at one of her earliest – and most bizarre – musical performances that she probably wishes everyone would forget. (Sorry, Gaga, but the internet remembers forever!)

On July 14, 2008, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta gave the world the first glimpse of her fledgling brand of performance art-meets-underground dance music in what was to become Lady Gaga’s first major television appearance at the bastion of cutting-edge culture that is… the 57th Miss Universe pageant???

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‘The Fame’ at 15: What Lady Gaga’s iconic debut album means today

Lady Gaga’s ‘The Fame’ was not presumptuous; it was prophetic.

As if that wasn’t bewildering enough, Gaga’s performance was about to be forever stained by the stench of the future one term, twice impeached, thrice indicted (for now), ex-president Donald Trump, who owned the pageant at the time.

Definitely an odd platform choice for a woman who would go on to support Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, but life was a completely different world in 2008.

when I first saw/heard of Lady Gaga it was performing Just Dance on the Miss Universe pageant and I thought she was European tbh

— Josh (@pizzashua) December 9, 2018

Going back to that day, you have to remember Lady Gaga was neither the pop star she is now, nor the one she would become in just six months time when her debut single “Just Dance” (released in April 2008) would culminate its slow nine-month climb to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 2009.

In other words, being the musical guest on the Miss Universe pageant was a big get for a newbie pop girlie with nary a hit on her resume and absent the modern-day power of social media.

As “Just Dance” was percolating in the clubs during the summer of ’08, most at-home Americans had no idea who the strange, black-hooded platinum blonde in gold shoulder pads, red gloves and dark shades striking robotic poses on their TV screen was moments after Miss Universe hosts Jerry Springer and Mel B. (what a pair!) interrupted the pageantry by introducing “international pop sensation Lady Gaga.” If you say so!

While Gaga’s performance would become epic for its campy randomness, it was also an extremely chaotic moment that went on for more than nine minutes–NINE!–during the show’s swimsuit competition. Yes, the swimsuit competition!

With the bikini-clad contestants trying to shimmy in the background, Gaga put her gloved hand over her right eye and belted out the track’s signature opener “RedOne”, and nothing was the ever the same again.

Initially, the song and dance seemed to go off like your typical TV musical performance, until about one minute in when, without warning, Springer interrupted Gaga’s chorus by announcing, “We begin the swimsuit competition with Thailand!” Um, what?!

Suddenly, we realize everything is not “gonna be okay” as Gaga and her two dancers shuffled to the side of the stage so the 15 finalists could begin their prance for the judges – which included the ex-president’s revolting son Don Jr. – in heels and two-pieces.

For the next three and a half minutes, the first batch of Miss Universe finalists paraded around flaunting their slender figures while their numerical score was plastered on the screen, all the while the beat to “Just Dance” continued playing on an endless loop like an EDM-version of elevator music.

One by one, Thailand, Germany, Colombia, Czech Republic, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, Switzerland and Venezuela came thru and obtained their mathematical worth.

After a long 240 seconds, Gaga returned acting as if the interlude of bathing beauties was all a Bobby Ewing/Dallas shower dream (IYKYK) and for one more minute was allowed to continue her musical theatrics while crooning, “What’s goin’ on on the floor?” Good question, LG!

The Real Gaga is the Miss Universe 2008 Lady Gaga. pic.twitter.com/25Ychsc2b3

— Triko. (@VicTricoche) November 14, 2019

Before you know it, Springer was back with his geographic name-calling and yelled “Italy!” Gaga was sidelined again and for three more minutes, the last group of contestants shashayed down the runway in their bright green and yellow swimsuits as they got rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

In a single file, Italy, Greece, Dominican Republic, South Africa, India, Hungary and Panama smiled and twirled and did their best to mask the awkwardness of the situation as the repetitive music of Gaga’s now-ubiquitous single was piped through the speakers.

With the bikini procession over, Gaga returned to finally end her “Just Dance”-a-thon by singing the lyrics “half psychotic, sick, hypnotic,” which also stood as a succinct review of what transpired over the course of the previous ten minutes.

You really have to see all of it to believe it.

Watch Gaga’s entire ridiculously amazing Miss Universe performance below:

Amid all its preposterous fabulousness, the Miss Universe performance would go on to help birth a million glitter dreams for the burgeoning legions of little monsters who had yet to coalesce around their Mother and for that we’re all eternally grateful.

Years later, Trump tried to take all the credit for the “Born This Way” singer’s rise claiming he “plucked a little-known pop singer from obscurity and positioned her to become the global superstar we now know as Lady Gaga” by having her perform on Miss Universe. Well, this has to be 100% true because absolutely everyone knows what a great and honest businessman he is!

Although its unclear how Gaga views her time on Miss Universe now, she had nothing but gratitude for the swimsuit-laden appearance at the time.

“That performance for me made me feel really privileged and thankful for the opportunity,” she told the EQ Music Blog in a 2008 interview. “Yeah it was surreal. I got up on that stage and all I was thinking to myself was ‘you better find that lens and sing that song to all those people!'” And sing live she did!

While we’ve been gifted with thousands of stellar Lady Gaga performances in the last 15 years, take a look back at Mother Monster’s early heyday with the music video that started it all.

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Let’s hear it for the girls!