Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars in “Die With a Smile” Duet at Intuit Dome Opening

The Intuit Dome, Inglewood’s newest $2 billion sports venue, will be home to the Los Angeles Clippers but the doors swung wide Thursday night for an official opening that hosted two music superstars.

Headliner Bruno Mars helped christen the stage by drawing a capacity crowd for the first night of back-to-back shows backed by his band, the Hooligans. The electric two-hour concert closed with two encores, the first of which delivered a slam dunk courtesy of Lady Gaga who shocked the crowd by hitting the stage close to 11:30 p.m. for a world premiere performance of their new duet, “Die With a Smile,” which dropped at 9 p.m. PT after being announced Thursday morning.

“How you feeling, L.A.?” asked Gaga as she was seated behind a keyboard with an oversize blonde wig, white tights, and a shiny, pink-and-white minidress. As the crowd went wild, Mars took the mic with an introduction: “Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the icon, pop royalty, Lady Gaga. You guys are gonna be the first to hear us play this song live.”

The surprise new single, “Die With a Smile,” was co-written by Mars, Gaga, D Mile, James Fauntleroy and Andrew Watt and produced by Mars, Gaga, D Mile, and Watt in a showing that marks the first new music from Mars since his work on duo Silk Sonic with Anderson .Paak and from Gaga since Chromatica (and her more recent Rolling Stones collab). A country-style music video also premiered Thursday.

After they finished the performance, Gaga jogged across the stage in her stilettos to take a series of bows facing each section of the spanking new facility as her fellow Super Bowl Halftime Show alum amped up the applause. Once she exited down a flight of stairs and disappeared into the darkness backstage, Mars stayed in the lights for “Uptown Funk” in what would be a final encore.

Long before that though, the show saw Mars bring the funk by breezing through his biggest hits. He had 18,000 fans on their feet for practically the entire concert, which he billed as a history-making event to inaugurate Intuit Dome. The setlist featured “24K Magic,” “Finesse,” “Treasure,” “Billionaire,” “That’s What I Like,” “Versace on the Floor,” “Marry You,” “Grenade,” “Talking to the Moon,” “Leave the Door Open,” “When I Was Your Man,” “Locked Out of Heaven” and “Just the Way You Are.”

Intuit Dome officials and local leaders didn’t need a reminder that Thursday was historic for Inglewood and the Clippers. A ribbon-cutting ceremony preceded the concert and featured remarks by L.A. Clippers chairman (and Intuit Dome champion) Steve Ballmer, Halo Sports CEO Gillian Zucker, Mayor James T. Butts Jr. and Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi. “Damn, I’m fired up,” Ballmer said upon taking the stage. “I have to say I’m a little anxious tonight. I love what we built, but I want all of you to love what we built.”

What they built is a $2 billion facility that was years in the making and spans 26 acres and features state-of-the-art technology including a double-sided “Halo Board” scoreboard screen that encircles the arena. The facility also features five basketball courts (a game court, two practice courts, one promo court and one on the spacious outdoor plaza), a training facility, medical and player spaces, an indoor pool, and an 80,000-square-foot plaza with two bars, a restaurant and massive team store. The arena, which was built to resemble a net with a ball at the center, is also adorned by a smattering of public art created by local artists, like murals, sculptures and digital displays, including a ship comprising basketball hoops and backboards designed by Glenn Kaino.

Starry guests at the Bruno Mars concert included Jennifer Lopez, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Angela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance, Meghan Trainor, Kelsea Ballerini, Chase Stokes, Simu Liu, Halle Bailey, Sophia Bush, Victoria Justice, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Kenya Barris, Jimmy Jam, Derek Hough, Jimmy O. Yang, Chris Olsen, Amanda Kloots, Bozoma Saint John, Crystal Kung Minkoff, Rob Minkoff, Babyface, Irving Azoff and Shelli Azoff, WME chairman Richard Weitz, Doug Walden, Cam Christie, Derrick Jones Jr., Jordan Miller, Kai Jones, Kobe Brown, Mo Bamba, DJ D-Nice and others.

“It is just such a pleasure and privilege to have a chance to welcome you here,” Ballmer also said during his remarks, which touched on the wild and ambitious “ride” in building the Clippers’ permanent home after sharing Crypto.com Arena with the Los Angeles Lakers. “When I first bought the business, the L.A. Clipper basketball team, I said to myself, one of the great things about buying the Clippers is we never need to build an arena. I said, look, all these teams, they sell, you got to build arenas. We’re never going to have to do that…. Well, it took about six months to realize it might be a good idea to have our own house.”

In opening the house tonight, Ballmer even took time to acknowledge that hiccups were likely to happen especially since Intuit Dome relies exclusively on technology as it’s a cashless and app-mandatory facility that makes use of facial technology and smartphones for purchases. “I know they like to mention tech. Can I tell you what tech means? Tech means software, and I’m really hoping it all works tonight…. It won’t. I’ve done version one of many software products, so bear with us, just bear with us if you need to.”

That request for leniency and patience proved to be a prescient warning as the app did malfunction causing a log jam at the entrance between 7 and 8 p.m. A huge crowd numbering in the hundreds was clustered across the courtyard, though, and despite a delay with getting the audience inside, it didn’t disrupt the festivities much as Mars went on not long after a planned 9:30 p.m. showtime. At one point in the night, Mars took a moment to summon security for an urgent situation that unfolded with a male guest in the front section. His condition was unclear as of press time.

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Intuit Dome, which broke ground in September 2021, is located not far from Inglewood’s other jewels, SoFi Stadium and Kia Forum. It has already committed to hosting the 2026 NBA All-Star Game and hoops games for the 2028 Summer Olympics. On the immediate calendar, Intuit Dome will host comedian Sebastian Maniscalco this weekend followed by concerts from Marco Antonio Solis, Olivia Rodrigo, Twenty One Pilots, Usher, Weezer, and Billy Joel.

“It’s our house,” Ballmer said as he wrapped up his comments. “We also knew that our house had to be about more than just basketball. Our house was going to be about music and basketball and all the support and counsel from [Irving Azoff] and from others that we’ve gotten to try to make this a home, a home where people feel comfortable coming in. I think of this as the best basketball facility ever built — I do think of it that way. I hope you agree, but I absolutely think about it. Whether people know about it worldwide, we hope they come visit.”

See below for more views inside the opening night.

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