Maria Aragon ready for Lady Gaga’s call

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Will Maria Aragon reprise her "Born This Way" duet with Lady Gaga for a hometown audience Thursday at the MTS Centre?

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/05/2014 (4487 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Will Maria Aragon reprise her “Born This Way” duet with Lady Gaga for a hometown audience Thursday at the MTS Centre?

“I’m ready anytime, anywhere,” the 13-year-old Winnipegger said Tuesday.

Managers for both singers have been talking about getting them together for the first time since March 2011, when a 10-year-old Aragon sat on Gaga’s lap while they played piano and performed Born This Way at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. The Filipina had recorded a YouTube cover of Born This Way that went viral when Gaga tweeted she couldn’t stop crying watching it.

Ruth Bonneville / Free Press archives
Maria Aragon performed at the 3rd annual We Day at MTS Centre in October.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press archives Maria Aragon performed at the 3rd annual We Day at MTS Centre in October.

Views of the video have topped 57 million.

“I hear it’s still iffy but I’m really, really hopeful that it will happen,” she said, during a break from her Grade 8 science class at Isaac Brock School. “Even if it doesn’t I’m really excited Lady Gaga is in Winnipeg.”

There is no doubt in her mind what Aragon wants to sing with the uber-popular pop diva.

“It would be amazing if I got to perform Born This Way with her again,” she said. “My performance with her in Toronto changed my life.”

Last October, Aragon sang Born This Way for a We Day audience of almost 16,000 at the MTS Centre and would like to do it again.

“The audience went completely crazy for Maria,” said her manager, Steven Nowack. “I know that Maria performing Born This Way with Lady Gaga would create history once again and send the audience into a frenzy.”

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Jockey wisecrack a hurtful low blow

Maureen Scurfield 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I ran into my boyfriend from Grade 9 at the horse races recently. He’s still really short. I said, “You’re so small you could be a great jockey!” He said, ”And you still talk before you think!”

Ouch! I was just stating what was true. If he doesn’t like being compared to a jockey, he should stay away from the racetrack, where people will mistake him for one, don’t you think?

— Hurt Feelings, St. James

Dear Hurt Feelings: It’s important not to make cracks about personal traits people are sensitive about.

Naked man dies after jolt from police Taser

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Preview

Naked man dies after jolt from police Taser

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Monday, Aug. 31, 2026

A Transcona man says he was lucky to be awake early Sunday when, shortly after 4 a.m., a stranger smashed through his screen door and kicked in the front door of his home.

“It’s all I can think about, like what if I was sleeping?” said the man, whom the Free Press is not naming to protect his identity. “Being awake gave me just a couple of extra seconds to deal with him before he got his whole body in.”

He was sitting on his couch when he heard the glass shatter and saw someone trying to force his way inside.

“Glass flew in and this guy — he was a big guy — tried to climb through the screen door,” the man said. “I hopped off the couch and just remember screaming for help. Well, of course it’s four in the morning, so nobody’s going to help, right? I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Read
Monday, Aug. 31, 2026

Indigenous enrolment up 12.5% at Brandon U

Abiola Odutola 3 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

BRANDON — Brandon University has recorded a 12.5 per cent increase in enrolment by Indigenous students from last year.

The latest numbers bring the total count to 570 and follow the trend in which Indigenous students have become one of the fastest-growing demographics at BU.

The students are primarily from Brandon, followed by Winnipeg, The Pas, Dauphin and Thompson, and the university has received more applications from high schools in communities with larger Indigenous populations.

Meanwhile, domestic, non-Indigenous enrolment had modest gains overall while international student numbers fell.

Winnipeg teacher disciplined for ‘liking’ student’s post

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Preview

Winnipeg teacher disciplined for ‘liking’ student’s post

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Monday, Aug. 31, 2026

A Winnipeg teacher has been reprimanded for accidentally clicking ‘like’ on a student’s year-old social media post during a late-night scroll.

A recent investigation by Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner found Jordan Nelson, a hockey coach in the Pembina Trails School Division, engaged in professional misconduct by viewing online profiles of students who were following a team account he was managing on behalf of his school.

“Using information associated with the school’s hockey team account to access and review a student’s social media account, without any legitimate educational or workplace purpose, was inappropriate and inconsistent with the professional boundaries expected of a teacher,” commissioner Noni Classen wrote.

A five-page report, better known as a consent resolution agreement, details agreed-upon facts about an October 2025 incident and subsequent disciplinary action.

Read
Monday, Aug. 31, 2026

Chefs gather in St. Boniface to see whose version of jollof is best

Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview

Chefs gather in St. Boniface to see whose version of jollof is best

Eva Wasney 4 minute read Yesterday at 5:30 PM CDT

Chef Alex Bockarie is bringing an age-old African culinary battle to Winnipeg.

On Saturday, five local chefs hailing from Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria will go head-to-head to determine who makes the best jollof — a rice dish simmered in a savoury tomato-based stew.

“Jollof rice originated from Senegal but it has spread throughout West Africa and every country has its own method of cooking it,” Bockarie says. “It’s a long-standing fight; even among the communities here in Winnipeg, everybody’s always saying that Sierra Leone’s (jollof) is the best, Ghana’s is the best, Nigeria’s is the best.

“It’s a friendly competition; friendly, but very serious too.”

Read
Yesterday at 5:30 PM CDT

Social problems cannot be simply swept away

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Social problems cannot be simply swept away

Editorial 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

In the battle to alleviate homelessness, mental health issues and drug addiction, we just can’t seem to get the order of our response right.

The city dismantles homeless encampments before there are enough safe, permanent places for people to live.

The Winnipeg Police Service conducts an intensive sweep to combat open drug use on Main Street, without arranging support from social service agencies to help the people they are rousting.

Is it any surprise that the acute problems being experienced by residents, businesses and workers on Main Street are beginning to manifest in adjacent neighbourhoods? That’s what happens when you try to solve a problem by moving it, not addressing it head-on.

Read
2:00 AM CDT