Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage nameLady Gaga, is an American pop singer-songwriter. After enrolling at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2003 and later performing in the rock music scene of New York City'sLower East Side, she signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of recording artist Akon who, recognizing her vocal abilities, signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.
Gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success and achieved international popularity with the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album reached number one on the record charts of six countries, topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart while simultaneously peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and accomplished positions within the top ten worldwide. Achieving similar worldwide success, The Fame Monster (2009), its follow-up, produced a further three global chart-topping singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro" and allowed her to embark on her second global concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just months after having finished her first, The Fame Ball Tour. Her second studio album Born This Way (2011) topped the charts in all major musical markets after the arrival of its singles "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory" – the first-mentioned achieved the number-one spot in countries worldwide and was the fastest-selling single in the history of iTunes, selling one million copies in five days.[3]
Inspired by glam rock singers like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, as well as dance-popartists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson, Gaga is well-recognized for her outré and ever-changing sense of style in music, in fashion, in performance and in her music videos. Her contributions to the music industry have accrued her numerous achievements including fiveGrammy Awards, among twelve nominations; two Guinness World Records;[4] and the estimated sale of 13 million albums and 51 million singles, making her one of the best-selling music artists worldwide.[5] Billboard named her the Artist of the Year in 2010,[6] ranking her as the 73rd Artist of the 2000s decade.[7] Gaga has been included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as being listed in a number of Forbes' annual lists.[8]
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Life and career
1986–2004: Early life
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986, in New York City.[9] The first child of Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia (née Bissett),[10] Gaga has one sister, Natali, who was born in 1992.[11] Gaga began learning to play piano at age four; she went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and began performing at open mike nights by the age of 14.[12] Raised as aRoman Catholic[13] on Manhattan's Upper West Side after the family moved there in 1993,[14] Gaga attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, from the age of 11.[15][16] Despite the affluence of the Upper West Side, Gaga stressed that she did not come from a wealthy background, stating 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."[17] She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak."[18][19] Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in at school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate.[20]
An avid actor in high school musicals, Gaga portrayed the lead roles of Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.[21] She also appeared in a very small role as a mischievous classmate in the television drama series The Sopranos in a 2001 episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell".[22] At 16, she began to sing and play in front of live audiences and unsuccessfully auditioned for parts in New York shows.[14] When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply toNew York University to study drama and performance – specifically the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), which is a faculty of the Tisch School of the Arts.[14]
Aged 17, Gaga gained early admission and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There, she studied music and sharpened her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics.[12][23] Gaga wrote athesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst; research that prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity."[24] 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. Being part of such a prestigious performance course, Gaga tried for and passed auditions while at CAP21,[14] including the part of an unsuspecting diner customer where MTV's Boiling Points, a prank reality television show, was being filmed.[25] However, by the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career.[26] Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if she was unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said.[21]
2005–07: Career beginnings
Settled in a small apartment on Rivington Street towards the summer of 2005,[14] Gaga recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel, for an audio book accompanying the children's book The Portal in the Park, by Cricket Casey.[27] She also began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU – guitarist Calvin Pia, bassist Eli Silverman and drummer Alex Beckham – in September of that year.[14] The band played a mixture of songs: some self-penned, along with classic rock numbers like Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er".[14] Playing in Lower East Side bars like The Bitter End and the Mercury Lounge, the band developed a small fan base and caught the eye of music producer Joe Vulpis.[14] Soon after arranging time in Vulpis' studio beneath a New Jersey liquor store in the months that followed, SGBand were selling their extended plays Words and Red and Blue at gigs around New York while becoming a local fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene.[21]
While at the peak of their career, SGBand performed at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June where Wendy Starland, a singing model, appeared as a talent scout for music producerRob Fusari who was searching for a female singer to front a new band. After Starland had informed Fusari of Gaga's ability, he contacted her. By this time, SGBand had grown apart and Gaga left to work with the music producer in New Jersey where she would travel daily to work on songs she had written and compose new material.[14] While in collaboration, Fusari compared some of her vocal harmonies to those ofFreddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen.[28] It was Fusari who helped created the moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."[29] He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song. [Lady Gaga] was actually a glitch; I typed 'Radio Ga Ga' in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow 'Radio' got changed to 'Lady'. She texted me back, "That's it." After that day, she was Lady Gaga.[30] She's like, "Don't ever call me Stefani again."[29] The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.[20]
Although the musical relationship between Fusari and Gaga was unsuccessful at first, the pair soon set up a company titled Team Lovechild, in which they recorded and produced electro-beat pop tracks and sent them to music industry bosses.[14] Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively and vied for the record company to take a chance on her "unusual and provocative" performance. After having his boss Antonio "L.A." Reid in agreement, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006 with the intention of having an album ready in nine months.[14] However, she was dropped by the label after only three months.[31] Devastated, Gaga returned to the solace the family home for Christmas as well as the nightlife culture of the Lower East Side. Becoming fascinated with some of the emerging neo-burlesque shows, Gaga began Go-Go dancing in bars dressed in little more than bikini.[14]She began experimenting with drugs in addition to performing in many shows.[15] "I was onstage in a thong, with a fringe hanging over my ass thinking that had covered it, lighting hairsprays on fire, Go-Go dancing to Black Sabbath and singing songs about oral sex. The kids would scream and cheer and then we'd all go grab a beer. It represented freedom to me. I went to a Catholic school but it was on the New York underground that I found myself."[24]
Her father, however, did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months.[15][30] During this time, she met performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped mold her on-stage persona.[32] Starlight explained that, upon their first meeting, Gaga wanted to perform with her to songs she had recorded with Fusari. Like SGBand, the pair began playing gigs at many of the downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Their live performance art piece was known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue"[33][34] and, billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts.[35][36] Soon after, the two were invited to play at the 2007Lollapalooza music festival in August that year.[37] The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews.[12][33] Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga had found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.[38]
While Gaga and Starlight were busy performing, producer Rob Fusari continued to work on the songs he had created with Gaga. Fusari sent these songs to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert.[39] Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007.[40] She credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going."[39] Having already served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship atFamous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV.[41] As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.[41] While Gaga was writing at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio.[42] He then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution[31] and later called her his "franchise player."[43] As 2007 came to a close, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed.[44] The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys",[44] a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.".[30] Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut album[41] and also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum including the single "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)".[41]
2008–10: The Fame and The Fame Monster
By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles, where she worked extensively with her record label to complete her debut album The Fame (2008).[30] She combined different genres on the album, "from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks."[31] The Fame received positive reviews from contemporary critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 71/100.[45] The album peaked at number one in United Kingdom, Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland, and the top-five in Australia, the United States and fifteen other countries.[46][47]Worldwide, The Fame has sold over fourteen million copies.[48] Its lead single "Just Dance" topped the charts in six countries—Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and later received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording.[49]
The following single "Poker Face" was an even greater success, reaching number-one in almost all major music markets in the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States.[50] It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year; it won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album.[51] Although her first concert tour happened as an opening act for fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block,[52] she ultimately embarked on her own worldwide concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which was critically appreciated and began in March 2009; ending in September of that year.[53] The cover of the annual "Hot 100" issue of Rolling Stone in May 2009 featured a semi-nude Gaga wearing only strategically placed plastic bubbles.[28][54]
In the issue she said that while she was beginning her career in the New York club scene, she was romantically involved with a heavy metaldrummer. She described their relationship and break-up, saying of it, "I was his Sandy, and he was my Danny [of Grease], and I just broke." He later became an inspiration behind some of the songs on The Fame.[54] She was nominated for a total of nine awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the award for Best New Artist, while her single "Paparazzi" won two awards for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects.[55] In October Gaga received Billboard magazine's Rising Star of 2009 award.[56] She attended the Human Rights Campaign's "National Dinner" the same month, before marching in the National Equality March for the equal protection of LGBT people in all matters governed by U.S. civil law in Washington, D.C.[2][57]
Written over the course of 2008–09, The Fame Monster, a collection of eight songs, was released in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal experience while she traveled the world, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Its first single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in eighteen countries, while reaching the top-two in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.[58][59] In the U.S., Gaga became the first artist in digital history to have three singles (along with "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in digital sales.[60][61] The song won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance while its accompanying music video won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.[62]
The album's second single "Telephone", which features singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number-one single[63] while its accompanying music video, although controversial, received a more positive reception from contemporary critics: praising her for "the musicality and showmanship of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of Madonna".[64] Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial—critics complimented its idea and dark nature,[65] but the Catholic League attacked Gaga for her alleged use of blasphemy.[66] Despite the controversy surrounding her music videos, they made Gaga the first artist to gain over one billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube.[67]
Musically, The Fame Monster has also received abundant success. Equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received, The Fame Monster garnered a total of six; the album won for Best Pop Vocal Album and earned her a second-consecutive nomination for Album of the Year.[68][69] The success of the album allowed Gaga to start her second worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of The Fame Monster and months after having finished The Fame Ball Tour.[70] Upon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed[71][72] and commercially accomplished[73] tour ran for over one and a half years and, according to Billboard, grossed 227.4 million dollars, making it one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining artist.[74] Additionally, Gaga has performed other songs from the album at international events such as the 2009 Royal Variety Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II;[75] the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of "Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John;[76] and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen,[77] supplemented her hat-trick win at the awards ceremony.[78]
Excited about bringing back Polaroid and "combining it with the digital era", Gaga was named Chief Creative Officer for a line of imaging products for the international optic company in January 2010 with the intent of creating fashion, technology and photography products.[79] Her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, was sued in March by Rob Fusari; claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment;[80] five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed both the lawsuit and a countersuit by Gaga.[81] In April, Gaga was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.[82] While giving an interview to The Times, Gaga hinted at having Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as lupus, which is a connective tissue disease.[83] She later confirmed with Larry King that she does not have lupus but "the results were borderline positive".[84] With the television host, Gaga also revealed that she was among several artists who would have opened for Michael Jackson during his This Is It concert series at London's O2 Arena. "I was actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated. "We were going to open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it happen." She added: "I believe there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing duets with Michael on stage."[85] In November 2010, one month after the singer reported assassination fears,[86] a restraining order was issued against Russian Anastasia Obukhova, who had threatened to shoot her in the head.[87]
2011–present: Born This Way
Gaga's second studio album and third major release Born This Way was released on May 23, 2011. She announced the title of the album during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.[88] Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major [...] metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats" and referred to as an album "about what what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid",[89]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."[90]Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level",[91]Gaga characterized her new music as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level."[92] Its arrival followed the release of its eponymous lead single on February 11, 2011,[93]which was performed live for the first time at the 53rd Grammy Awards two days after its release. The song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.[94]
Two other singles, "Judas"[95] and "The Edge of Glory",[96][97][98] the former being criticized for its references to Biblical characters Judas,Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene,[99] were released before the album, both placing in the top ten of the major musical markets. Upon release, Born This Way sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the United States, debuting atop the Billboard 200, and topping the charts in more than 10 other countries.[100] Lending her vocals elsewhere, Gaga paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the animated feature film Gnomeo & Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", was released on February 11, 2011, without Gaga's vocals. The duet version is only featured in the film.[101][102] She undertook her job as a fashion columnist for V, where she wrote about her creative process, her studying of the world of pop culture, and her ability to tune into the evolution of pop-culture meme.[103] In May 2011, Gaga told Australian radio show The Kyle & Jackie O Show that she would be coming to Sydney to perform a one-off concert in July 2011, to promote Born This Way, which occurred at Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday July 13, 2011.[104][105]
Artistry
Musical style and influences
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Gaga has been mainly influenced by glam rock singers such as David Bowie andFreddie Mercury, as well as dance-pop artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson.[31][106] The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name, "Lady Gaga".[20][107] She commented: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique—one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music."[106] Gaga has also a lot of comparison to Madonna. She stated: "there is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally."[108] Gaga's other musical inspirations include Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Grace Jones and Blondie singer Debbie Harry.[109] In an interview withYahoo! Singapore, when she answered questions for the media, she stated that Cyndi Lauper is someone she admired, and she also stated the reason why her sophomore album, Born This Way, was more rock-supported. She stated that she wanted her album to be for her fans, as they reacted a stronger way for rock songs than pop, which influenced her rock elements in the album.[110]
Gaga has the vocal range of a contralto.[111] Her vocals have drawn frequent comparison to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990sEuropop.[112] While reviewing her debut album The Fame, The Sunday Times asserted "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, [Gaga] evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now."[113] Similarly, The Boston Globe critic Sarah Rodman commented that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats."[114] Though her lyrics are said to lack intellectual stimulation, "[she] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace."[115] Music critic Simon Reynoldswrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B-ish beats.[116]
Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence.[15][26] She considers Donatella Versace her muse.[15]Gaga has her own creative production team called the Haus of Gaga, which she handles personally. The team creates many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos.[117] Her love of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful."[10] "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us."[26] The Global Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark "no pants" coming in at No. 3.[118] Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."[119]
Also in further stuff: She wants to be Madonna, my brother thinks she a monster (for once in my life I agree), and PLEASE DONT TELL HER I SAID THIS IF YOU KNOW HER PERSONALLY.
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