Fact check: There is no evidence to support claims that Lady Gaga is a witch – USA TODAY

Posted: November 7, 2020 at 9:02 pm

While Lady Gaga and John Legend campaigned for the Biden-Harris ticket in Pennsylvania, rapper Lil Pump joined President Trump in Michigan. USA TODAY

On the eve of the 2020 election several artists took the Biden-Harris campaign stage in a final plea for support from their fan bases. The next morning adversaries rekindledold, QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories to discredit Lady Gaga's political outcry. The common theme: Gaga is a witch.

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One Facebook user called Gaga a high ranking witch in the music industry, referencing her relationship with Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic.

The same post highlighted the slogan Battle for the soul of the nation as evidence that Gaga was involved in something sinister. The Biden-Harris claim has been using that slogansince August. The slogan is not specific to Gaga, who only joined in campaign efforts on Nov. 2, andcannot prove that the star is a involved with satanism.

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These demonic spirits of witchcraft, sexual perversion, and child sacrifice are seducing too many Christians at an alarming rate, Jeremiah Johnson Ministries posted on Facebook about Biden and Gaga on Nov. 3. Thatpost was later deleted.

USA TODAY reached out to both posters for comments and has not received a response.

Abramovic has been the subjectof conspiracy theories surrounding witchcraft dating back to PizzaGate in October 2016. When Hillary Clintons campaign chairman John Podestas emails were released on WikiLeaks, an email between Abramovic and Podestas brother Tony Podesta sparked speculation.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Marina Abramovic(Photo: Donna Ward, FilmMagic)

I am so looking forward to the Spirit Cooking dinner at my place. Do you think you will be able to let me know if your brother is joining? Abramovic wrote in the email.

Proponents of the conspiracy theory argued the email was evidence that she and the Clinton campaign we involved in witchcraft and satanism.

Abramovic later said Spirit Cooking referred to a dinner she hosted for a group of benefactors to her art institute.

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The dinner shared the name with a 1996 book and 1997 performance piece shed previously worked on. The Museum of Modern Art described the cookbook as a series of 'aphrodisiac recipes'that serve as evocative instructions for actions or thoughts.

Abramovics performance involved her painting strange recipes in blood on a gallerys walls. We had lots of fun, she told the New York Times about the dinner. There was no human blood, or baby serving, or sex orgies.

Marina Abramovi's emotionally harrowing journey through Brazil is documented in her new film.(Photo: Courtesy of Cau Ito)

I really want to ask these people, Can you stop with this? Can you stop harassing me? Cant you see that this is just the art Ive been doing for 50 years of my life? Abramovic said of the conspiracy theories that have caused to her and her coworkers to receive death threats.

Lady Gaga became entangled in the conspiracy theory when social media users began sharing a photo of the singer with Abramovic and a body-painted model. Several posts falsely claimed the model was Ryan Singleton, an aspiring model whose body was found in Baker, California, on Sept. 21, 2013. Posters arguedGaga and Abramovic were involved in an illegal satanic spirit cooking hunt and party just days after Singleton went missing.

A July fact-check by Reuters found that the photo was taken at a July 2013 art show and the model involved was not Singleton. Trina Merry, the body paint artist featured in the show, dispelledthe claimmultiple times on Twitter.

Other social media users shared photos of Gaga atthe event, claiming she was involved in a "sickening" ritual pertaining to "Satanic Democrat Pedophile Cannibals."

The photo featured Gaga and Abramovic eating something off what looked like a bloody body. Lead Stories reported in May that the two "good friends" were not drinking blood, butengagingin performance art.

Lady Gaga in a scene from her Abramovic Method video.(Photo: Vimeo)

Despite these efforts by fact-checkers and artists to debunk these claims, some continue to argue Gaga is a witch. USA TODAY could find no evidence to support that theory.

Neither Abramovic nor Gagas representation has responded to USA TODAYs emails.

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We rate the claim that Lady Gagais involved in witchcraft or satanism FALSE because it is not supported by our research. Claims that Gaga is a witch stem from misrepresentations ofa 2013 art event and her relationship with performance artist Marina Abramovic, whose own false accusations of witchcraft tie back to the PizzaGate conspiracy theory. The resurgence of this claim comes directly after Gaga expressed support for the Biden-Harris campaign.

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This fact check is available at IFCNs 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

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Fact check: There is no evidence to support claims that Lady Gaga is a witch - USA TODAY

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