Building upon its reputation as one of the hip spots in Las Vegas, the Palms Hotel and Casino will be introducing a new ad campaign that will feature musician Lady Gaga’s song “Poker Face.”
The ad, which can be found on the website of KVVU television in Las Vegas, puts Lady Gaga’s popular song beside some of the best features that the Palms has to offer. In particular, it focuses on the nightlife that occurs at the hotel, including its highly popular Playboy Club, Fantasy Towers, and various entertainment and gambling options. The ad finishes with the tag line “Show Us Your Poker Face,” as the song cuts abruptly.
“We feel that this is a special and unique opportunity to connect the Palms brand with one of the most respected and talented artists of our time,” said Palms owner George Maloof during the announcement this week. While the ad campaign focuses exclusively on the Palms itself, there is an ulterior motive for the promotion as well; Lady Gaga is set to perform at the Palms Pearl Theater on December 17th and 18th.
Lady Gaga, besides becoming the latest to tap into the poker phenomenon through tying in references to the game, has had quite a year on her own. She was signed to a record contract four years ago at the age of 19 and went on to write songs for several top recording artists including Akon, who encouraged her Interscope label to give her a chance to perform solo. Her debut album, “The Fame,” was released in late 2008 and contained “Poker Face,” which has given the young artist three Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for 2009.
There has long been a connection between poker and music. Musicians, with long road trips and plenty of downtime, have been known to enjoy a poker game while en route. Anthrax’s Scott Ian, who is a sponsored celebrity player at UB.com, is one of the most notable musicians to step to the felt and Motley Crue front man Vince Neil is well known for his charity poker tournament, which has run for four years and raised money for The Skylar Neil Memorial Fund, an organization which has raised charitable contributions to support innovative cancer, leukemia, and AIDS research.
Poker has also found its way into the music of many of the top artists in rock and country music history. One of the legendary bands in rock history, the Grateful Dead, penned the song “Deal,” which is known for the following lyric:
Since it costs a lot to win, and even more to lose,
You and me bound to spend some time wond’rin’ what to choose.
Goes to show, you don’t ever know,
Watch each card you play and play it slow,
Wait until that deal come round,
Don’t you let that deal go down, no, no.
Another band that found their way to the poker world, albeit much louder than the Dead did, is the legendary metal band Motorhead and its song, “Ace of Spades.” While also taking into account the alleged myths around the card itself, band front man Lemmy Kilmister put in the following poker references:
Pushing up the ante, I know you’ve got to see me,
Read ’em and weep, the dead man’s hand again,
I see it in your eyes, take one look and die,
The only thing you see, you know it’s gonna be,
The ace of spades
The ace of spades
Finally, there is the one song that could be directly related to poker and delivers life lessons. Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” directly told the story of a lifelong poker player as he reflected his words of wisdom in the chorus of the song:
You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.
Whether Lady Gaga will ever be held in the same regard as these legends of music remains to be seen, but “Poker Face” has definitely earned her a great deal of notoriety, prestige, and money. With the Palms gig and the ad campaign, it seems we will be hearing “Poker Face” for a little while longer.
