Lady Gaga's Oscars showcase may have been a turning point in her career.

Lady Gaga has delivered two awards show performances in the span of one month, and the most shocking thing about each was how sedate they both were. Eye-popping theatrics are usually par for the course when it comes to Gaga, but at the Grammys and Oscars, there was no blood-spurting, no male alter egos, no in-song costume changes nor giant eggs to burst out of onstage. At the Grammys and Oscars, Gaga sang decades-old classics, without dancing, or wearing an elaborate outfit. And in both instances, she absolutely dazzled.



The Academy Awards in particular felt like a major coup for Gaga. Asked to perform a medley of songs from The Sound of Music in honor of the 50th anniversary of the film's release, Gaga took what could have been a thankless task during the final hour of an endless telecast, and turned the performance into the music moment everyone was talking about on Monday morning. Wearing a dreamy white dress and setting aside the red gloves that she had worn on the red carpet, Gaga powered through a medley of "The Sound of Music," "Do Re Mi," "Edelweiss" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" with a warm smile and zero false notes. The performance earned a standing ovation and a hug from Julie Andrews; more importantly, it felt like the kind of showcase that becomes a career cornerstone. 

How did this happen? It's not rocket science: Gaga has a tremendous voice. It's an instrument that is sometimes obscured on her own dance hits -- songs like "Poker Face" and "Applause" even find the pop star speak-singing on the verses -- but anyone who has seen Gaga perform live knows how often her pipes can rise toward a stratospheric note and bring the house down. It's the type of voice that has been molded through classical training but conveys Gaga's oversized personality with every melisma.