Lady Gaga is "proud" of her body.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga

The 30-year-old pop star has hit back at the critics who ridiculed her appearance during the Super Bowl half-time show in Houston, Texas, on Sunday (05.02.17), when Gaga was happy to show plenty of flesh throughout her 13-minute performance.

Alongside a photograph of herself on stage at the annual sporting event, Gaga wrote: "I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too. No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That's the stuff of champions. thank you so much everyone for supporting me. I love you guys. Xoxo, gaga (sic)"

By contrast, Gaga's eye-catching performance at the NRG Stadium has also drawn plenty of praise from some of her showbiz pals.

Tony Bennett, Gaga's long-time collaborator, said the singer's half-time show was the "most super thing" about the Super Bowl.

Tony - who worked with the Grammy Award-winning star on their 2014 album 'Cheek to Cheek' - wrote on Twitter: "Lady...the most super thing about the Super Bowl was you....just amazing! (sic)"

Gaga also received praise from fellow pop star Katy Perry, who made reference to her spectacular entrance during the half-time show, which saw her abseil from the roof of the NRG Stadium.

Katy said on Twitter: "I want jumping gifs stat! Bravo (sic)"

Gaga - who was supported by a team of dancers and pyrotechnics - largely steered clear of any controversy during her performance and instead treated fans to renditions of some of her best-selling hits, including 'The Edge of Glory', 'Pokerface' and her LGBTQ anthem 'Born This Way'.

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