Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
Also known as	Lady Gaga
Born	March 28, 1986 (1986-03-28)
Origin	New York City, United States
Genres	Pop, electronic pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, DJ
Years active	2006–present
Associated acts	Elton John, Beyoncé, Flo Rida, Wale
Website	www.ladygaga.com Lady Gaga's signature

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), best known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She got her stage name from the song "Radio Ga Ga" by the band Queen. In 2008, she made an album called, The Fame, and she tells us "about how everyone can feel famous." Lady Gaga has a contralto vocal range. Her other albums are The Fame Monster and Born This Way. She has won various Grammys and BRIT Awards.

Life and career

1986-2004: Early life

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York City on March 28, 1986, the oldest child of Joseph Germanotta, internet businessman, and Cynthia. She learned to play piano at the age of four, wrote her first piano song at 13 and began performing live by age 14. At the age of 11, Gaga started going to Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, but has often said her family wasn't rich, saying that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything – my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father." An actor in high school, Gaga played lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Gaga said her high school life was "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "insecure" as she told in an interview, "I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak."

At age 17, Gaga was admitted early into the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There she studied music and helped her songwriting writing essays on art, religion, social issues and politics. Gaga felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she left school to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, if she agreed to go back to Tisch if she failed. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said.

Gaga has said she has had bulimia and anorexia since she was 15.

2010–present: Born This Way

Lady Gaga released a new album called Born This Way, on May 23, 2011. At midnight on New Years 2011, she said on her Twitter and Facebook pages that a new single would come out on February 13. Born This Way will be Gaga's third album in three years, and her second album with all new songs. She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on [the album] for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day." Gaga has said the album is about "what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid."

Gaga also worked with Elton John to make a new duet for the soundtrack to the upcoming Disney movie Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, called "Hello, Hello", will be released in February 2011. She released her single Born This Way on 11 February 2011.

Public image

Fashion and style

Rome, 2011

The New York Post said her early look was like "a refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." Gaga has naturally brown hair; she bleached her hair blonde so she wouldn't look like Amy Winehouse. Lady Gaga is often called a 'fashion icon' and is famous for the clothes she wears, because of her many different and unique outfits. She loves designer labels such as Versace and Alexander McQueen and spends a lot of money on them, but she also has a creative team who design any outfit she wants for her. She has several tattoos on the left side of her body such as a peace sign inspired by John Lennon, and a German script tattoo, from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Fans

People often say that Lady Gaga has a special relationship with her fans. She says that they matter to her more than anything else. At her shows she often cries when the crowd cheers for her, because her fans make her so happy. She meets as many of them as possible backstage at shows, at public events, and in her day to day life, and she often buys them food like pizza or McDonald's when they are waiting in line at her shows. In return, her fans are known for being very dedicated. They wait days to meet her and say they love her very much. Lady Gaga calls her fans 'Little Monsters'. She does this because monsters are usually scary and ugly, but she wants her fans to see that even monsters can be beautiful.

LGBT rights

Gaga gives a speech at the National Equality March, October 11, 2009

As a Democrat, Gaga says much of her early success is thanks to her gay fans and is often called a "rising gay icon." Early in her career she had trouble being played on the radio, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase." In the inside of her album The Fame, she said, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team." One of her first performances on television was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show on the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance". In June, she sang the song again at the San Francisco Pride event. After The Fame came out, she said the hit song "Poker Face" was about being bisexual. When she was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she complimented DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community". She later said that the October 11, 2009, National Equality March rally on the national mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she left, she said "Bless God and bless the gays," similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards speech a month earlier. At the rally, she sang a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" saying "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the lyrics of the song to talk about the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his homosexuality. In September 2010, she spoke at a rally in favor of removing the Don't ask, don't tell policy, which stopped LGBT people from working openly in the military of the United States. The gay magazine The Advocate said that she had become an important helper for gays and lesbians where President Barack Obama wasn't.

Discography

Main page: Lady Gaga discography

• The Fame (2008)
• The Fame Monster (2009)
• Born This Way (2011)