Lady Gaga worried about dropping the ball at the end of Super Bowl showdown

Lady Gaga worried herself to sleep on the eve of her Super Bowl spectacular on Sunday (05Feb17), convinced she would drop the ball at the end of her performance.

The Poker Face singer's flawless hits medley ended with her dropping the microphone, catching a football and diving into a pit below the stage from a prop staircase, but Gaga admits she was terrified the ending would ruin the set.

"I was really happy I caught the football," she told Apple Music DJ Zane Lowe on Wednesday (08Feb17). "The night before, I was going to sleep and looked up at the ceiling and wondered why on earth I thought it was a good idea to catch a football...

"(It would be) the biggest fumble of the night if I dropped it... I thought, 'If I could do all of that and then catch the football, that's a real touchdown'."

Gaga also had sleepless nights about her high-flying entrance above the stage at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, revealing she committed to the plan on New Year's Day (01Jan17).

"It was super high and super scary at first, but... once I made the decision there was no going out (sic). I made a deal with myself I wasn’t going to get nervous... I was 70 feet in the air and I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Once the lights came on, and fans (were) screaming, the boom of the pyro... it's what makes me feel alive."

The singer knew the minute the set was over she had hit it out of the park, and puts it all down to hard work and rehearsals: "I think that I knew I gave it everything I had in me," she told Lowe. "I knew I had prepared and on top of doing what I rehearsed I added that extra bit of heart to the performance."