She is known for outrageous costumes and putting on one heck of a show.

And Lady Gaga delivered on all counts last night as she brought her Monster Ball tour back to the United Kingdom.

But what fans might not have expected was to see the softer side of the singer, who performed an emotional set before breaking down and crying as she talked about her sick grandfather who is in hospital.

Dedicating the song Speechless to him, she told the audience: 'If we all sing loud enough, maybe he can hear us!'

Half way through the song, Gaga had to pause to wipe away her tears.

And while the rare moment was not captured on camera, fans and reviewers were stunned to see her softer side.

But it was not long before she was back in the normal swing of things, bathing in an angel fountain spouting blood and gets friendly with her female dancers.

Her show in Nottingham is the first date of her second leg of the Monster Ball tour in Britain.

The Monster Ball show has controversial for reasons other than her shocking flame-thrower costumes and daring onstage antics.

Tickets for the second leg are double the cost of the first - between £50 and £75 a pop, rather than the initial dates which were organised by a different promoter and cost £27.50.

Promoters said the singer had scrapped the original staging, seen in the U.S., for a huge production which reportedly cost £2million with bigger staging and better costumes.

'What was a small arena/theatre production is now a massive, first rate arena production,' Arthur Fogel, chairman for Live Nation said earlier this year.

'Ticket prices for the previous dates were set long before the current Monster Ball show was developed. Ticket prices are comparable and fair.'

Live Nation said the extra dates had been added - in Birmingham, Manchester and London in May and June - because of .overwhelming response'.

During the Monster Ball world tour, Gaga has suffered a series of health scares.

And she revealed she has been tested for the potentially fatal disease lupus.

The 24-year-old Paparazzi singer - who collapsed on stage while on tour in Japan earlier this year - revealed to The Times that her aunt died from the connective tissue disease.

She said: 'I'm very connected to my aunt, Joanne, who died of lupus, it's a very personal thing, I don't want my fans to be worried about me.'

Sealing her status as a world-class performer, Gaga's songs are to be performed on hit musical comedy Glee.

In the show, which aired in the US on Tuesday night, the cast performed renditions of her hits such as Poker Face and Bad Romance wearing typically odd outfits.

Gaga said last week: 'I love Glee. I love the cast and the creativity of the writers. I went to a musical theatre school, and used to dream that someday the students would be singing my songs.'

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