The star only changed costume twice, letting her music do the talking in a 12-minute, hit-laden set.
She opened with Woody Guthrie's civil rights anthem This Land Is Your Land, a gentle but pointed rebuke to the Trump administration; which she reinforced by performing Born This Way - her hymn to acceptance and inclusion.
"No matter black, white or beige... I was born to be brave," she sang to an expected US TV audience of 110 million.
But Gaga refrained from overt sermonising, simply saying: "We're here to make you feel good" (and, later on, "hello mum"
