Lady Gaga's 'tear-filled' HBO documentary

The video: In advance of a "tear-filled" Lady Gaga special set to air in May, HBO has released two black-and-white trailers that reveal a very human side to the pop diva who sometimes seems like she's from another planet. (See the footage below.) Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, which will premiere on May 7, explores the singer's personal life and career, ending in a concert movie of her ostentatious live show. In the most buzzed-about clip, Gaga (née Stephanie Germanotta) breaks down in tears at a backstage makeup table as she reflects on the setbacks she endured on the road to stardom. "I still sometimes feel like a loser kid in high school," she says, as two members of her entourage comfort her. "I just have to pick myself up and tell myself that I'm a superstar every morning so that I can get through this day and be for my fans what they need for me to be." She then prays to God to "please give me strength to be a winner for all of them and not for myself."

The reaction: From the perspective of Lady Gaga fans, "this clip ultimately left us little monsters feeling empowered," says Emily Exton at Popdust. Even one of our favorite stars "saw herself as a freak in high school." Perhaps, but this film is also bound to draw more Gaga-Madonna comparisons, says Kyle Anderson at Entertainment Weekly. The teary preview, "with its black and white film and the mid-styling confessional, borrows an awful lot from Truth or Dare," which chronicled the Material Girl on her 1990 Blond Ambition tour. See the Gaga trailers

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