Lady Gaga opened the huge Children in Need show in typically stylish fashion and with a trio of her biggest hits. Wearing a classic '50s style backless black outfit, black gloves, pearls, red lipstick and Marilyn Monroe-esque curls, she began a breathless set with Born This Way to rapturous applause and cheering.
The world's current hottest performer topped the bill among a stellar line-up of music industry royalty put together by X-Factor judge and Take That maestro Gary Barlow.
The New York-born singer-songwriter had the audience of 14,000 on their feet from the start of the Children in Need Rocks Manchester concert inside the sold-out Manchester Evening News (MEN) arena.
Lady Gaga followed up her opening song with her hit Edge Of Glory, performing with a troupe of backing dancers wearing next to nothing. The stage then darkened and she disappeared briefly, with the restless crowd clapping in unison and shouting her name, before out of the darkness she appeared again, to ask: "Just one more?" - and was greeted with wild applause.
Having removed the lower half of her outfit to reveal fishnet stockings and with her bare-chested male backing singers shedding yet more of their clothes, she finished her set with Marry The Night, dancing and singing and ending her performance stock-still to milk the rapturous applause and cheering from the crowd.
