Edit: Here are a LOT more pictures! tumblr.com/... Last night, was far and away the best night of my life. I was so fortunate to attend the Artrave in Vancouver in the Artpop Zone with my best friend Laura. I will never forget what happened that night! We arrived at Rogers Arena and went to the check-in point and received our tickets and got escorted up to the suite level to have some pre-show food and drinks. They had some nice food waiting and a glitter-tattoo station near the giant Artpop cover backdrop you could take pictures in front of. We had gone in the spirit of Donatella, I wore a three-piece suit with custom shoes and silver leaf in my hair - while Laura donned a Nicole Miller gown and Kate Spade clutch (fyi both outfits were rented! We aren't really living that fab life, I wish!). When it was time to go down to the arena, we were taken backstage, which was totally rad, and led out onto the main floor back by the crews controlling the lights and what not. We made our way into the Artpop zone and the excitement was out of this world. I had just been at the Seattle Artrave the night before, so I knew what to expect. Lady Starlight was tearing it up, with some awesome EDM to dance to. We started mingling with some of the other monsters in the APZ with us, and handed out glow stick wrist bands to everyone in there, and a few people out in GA. After Lady Starlight ended her set, we danced and had a drink and waited for Gaga. When the curtain dropped, the night really cranked up. It was so surreal standing there as Gaga marched down the stage and up to the piano to look out over us in the APZ and sing Artpop. I was directly below her looking up and singing back while trying to take pictures as best I could. My main focus was on enjoying the music and taking in the whole experience, but there was no way I wasn't getting some kick ass pictures. As the show went on Joe Germonatta joined us to watch his daughter perform for all the screaming fans in the arena. It was his birthday, Gaga sang happy birthday at the Seattle show, and a couple people went up to wish him a happy birthday and chit-chat. I was too shy to actually approach him, but when he was standing in front of my bag that I brought in when it was time to pull out the pride flag, we made eye contact, so I was happy with just that! His look just screamed "New York." I loved it, he was happy looking as Gaga belted out all her tracks. As the show was drawing down to a close, the reality was setting in that we would soon be going backstage again to wait for Gaga herself to come and hang out with us. The lights went up and all the people started filing out, the construction crews were already starting to tear away at the stage as we were escorted in a line backstage again. We passed Lady Starlight and Lane's dressing rooms, and I got to snap a very quick, and blurry shot of Peter van der Veen (he had come up to the APZ but I couldn't make it across in time to snap a pic, bummer!). The room we were in had three tables inside and mini-bar set up with a bartender. Drinks were outrageously expensive, $64 for a pitcher of beer! (Pro-tip: Don't loose your drink tickets if you've got APZ tickets for an upcoming show!) One wall had a plain white curtain set up for a backdrop for pictures after the meet and greet was over. The staff, Joya and Colin were awesome, super friendly and great at trying to calm down our nerves. We were told that they would bring in a table for Gaga and she'd come in for a while and have a conversation with us. As we waited in anticipation, we were able to go use a bathroom and freshen up, one by one, and shortly before Gaga came in Joya (who had been going in and out, each time making our hearts stop thinking Gaga was coming in) told us to “get excited!” and that we were getting a special surprise and went around with a box to collect everyone’s cell phones. I hadn’t even noticed, but they put up a table and chair right behind me along with a large Beatbox. After another one of Gaga’s security laid out the ground rules, he was so amazingly hot, those of us that had gifts were instructed to leave it on the table right next to her table and we were not to give it directly to her, germs and whatnot! It was time for Gaga to come in. I was instantly overcome with emotion, and was shaking as she entered the room. She had on a simple black wig, one I was actually hoping she’d wear, and a black tube top with a vintage custom Balmain jacket, Illesteva glasses, some black pants and cute heeled boots. I could barely manage to squeak out “Hi Gaga” as she walked by me to take her seat. I literally had the best seat in the room, I was directly in front of her, maybe 3 feet away, I could have touched her boots if I just reached out! She took off our glasses and said hi to us all. I got my courage and said, “thank you for such a wonderful show” first. She asked us how we liked it and we started talking. A couple people were asking questions, and a few shared some personal stories. It was so freaking surreal. I kept on crying sporadically, not like full on diva-cry, my eyes would just get all watery and a tear or two would fall out. It’s not every day that you get to meet your hero, you know! We talked about Artpop, and the music videos a bit, the reasons for why “I Wanna be with You” was changed, and some other things! I could tell that she is just so excited for Cheek to Cheek to come out. She was telling us about her plans to tour with Tony Bennett, and laid out the surprise for us… We were going to hear some of the tracks from the new album!!! I was thinking oh wow, we’re going to get to hear one or two... She ended up playing FIVE of them! She gave us some background info on the songs as they played. She cried as she recorded Lush Life, and wanted to re-record it, but Tony dried her tears as she sang and wouldn’t let her redo it. Let me tell you what, her voice on this album with Tony is simply out of this world. She declared to us, with complete sincerity and confidence that she would never auto-tune her voice again. She is so ready to sing, and put out an album on her own with just her voice and a piano. It’s something that I’ve wanted for years, I was so excited to hear that she’s already writing music for it. Her staff was trying to get her to stop to take pictures earlier in the songs, but she just wanted to keep playing them and kept pushing back the photo time. None of us were complaining about that, ha! All in all, the conversation and music preview portion lasted about an hour and ten minutes or so. I was so shocked that we got that much time, it was amazing. We were told that we would exit the room and line up, leaving everything out side until we came back in. I was towards the back of the line with Laura, and people were going in and out very quickly. If we had all been allowed 2-3 minutes with her alone, it would have meant another 40-60 minutes for her, I don’t blame them for hurrying it. I didn’t want to keep her up any longer either, well, yes I did – but that would be selfish! Haha! When it was us up at the door next, security asked if we wanted a picture together with her, we had hoped that would be the case. When we went up to her I managed to quickly say, “I hope you like the book we made for you!” And she said, “Thank you for making it!” We posed and they took 3 snaps of us together. I was told that I could take an individual shot with her and I went right back up, after taking 2 steps away thinking it was over. I was able to choke out a whisper of “thank you so much for standing up for Gay rights. *almost cried here* from the bottom of my heart.” Lady Gaga looked me squarely in the eye, reached out and gently grabbed my arm and squeezed ever so slightly and said “you’re welcome” and the feeling I got was just radiating love. It was such an amazing moment, and I’ll never forget it. It didn’t feel forced or fake in the slightest, so amazingly genuine. It’s actually making tears well up in my eyes as I type this out. She was so real, and so down to earth. We laughed together about things, and she shared such great thoughts with us. I’ll never ever forget this night, and will treasure it for the rest of my life. I am so, so fortunate to have been in a place in my life where this was a possibility. I hope that she does get to read through the book we made her so she can read our letters with everything we wanted to say but knew we wouldn’t have time for. I will follow this woman through any musical journey she decides is right for her. I am so excited to watch the rest of her career unfold and to see her tour again with Tony. #artraveVancouver #ArtpopZone #ARTRAVE #meetandgreet #MeetAndGreetWithGaga #backstage #CheektoCheek #MotherMonster #GagaPics #artpop