Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), best known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. The latter part of the name is variably spelled either GaGa or Gaga, both on her websites and by her record label. She has been influenced by glam rockers such as David Bowie and Queen as well as '80s pop singers such as Madonna and Michael Jackson.
After singer-songwriter and record producer Akon recognised that Gaga also had vocal talent, he signed her to a joint deal with his own label, Kon Live Distribution, and then started to work on her own new material for her debut album. In 2008, Gaga released The Fame, which she explained was "about how anyone can feel famous". To date, the album spawned the international hit singles "Just Dance" (nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 51st Grammy Awards) and "Poker Face".
Lady Gaga was born in Yonkers, New York, to an internet entrepreneur father and a business partner; both of whom are of Italian American descent. As a child, she attended the private Catholic school Convent of the Sacred Heart. Having learned piano by ear at the age of four, Gaga went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mic nights by the age of 14. At the age of seventeen, Gaga was one of twenty people in the world to have gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied music. She honed her writing skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion and socio-political order. However she withdrew from the New York University. At age 20, she began working for Interscope Records as a songwriter, penning songs for pop acts such as the Pussycat Dolls. After she moved out of her parents' house, Gaga started hanging out downtown, performing in the Lower East Side club scene with bands Mackin Pulsifer and SGBand. Finding herself surrounded by singers who all wrote the same style of music, she decided to do something fresh and provocative in the rock 'n roll underground: pop music. Her entrepreneur father was shocked when she ran off to the Lower East Side to dabble in drugs and appear in burlesque shows at dive bars with drag queens and go-go dancers. "He couldn't look at me for a few months," she admits of her early experimentation. "I was in leather thongs, so it was hard for him — he just didn't understand."
Gaga got her stage name when the music producer Rob Fusari compared her vocal style to that of Freddie Mercury and took the name 'Gaga' from the Queen song, "Radio Ga-Ga". It was Fusari who helped her to write some of her early hits, including "Disco Heaven", "Dirty Ice Cream" and "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich".
Gaga was originally signed to Def Jam when she was 19 years old; it happened after the record executive L. A. Reid heard her singing down the hallway from his office. However Gaga states Reid never met with her. "I used to wait outside his office for hours, hoping he'd take meetings with me about my songs, but it never happened." Reid dropped Gaga from the label after three months. She was spotted a couple of years later by the music executive Vincent Herbert and signed to Interscope in January 2008. Impressed by her ear for melody and knack for spotting a great hook, various acts — Akon’s Konvict label, as well as Fergie, Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and New Kids on the Block — have hired her as a songwriter. Gaga also sparked the interest of Interscope's Chairman Jimmy Iovine in early 2007. He offered her a label deal via Streamline/Interscope and partnered her with singer-songwriter Akon. It was Akon, who, upon hearing her sing a reference vocal for one of his tracks, recognized that Gaga also had vocal talent.Akon ultimately convinced Jimmy Iovine to sign her to a joint deal with his own label, Kon Live Distribution.
Throughout 2007, Lady Gaga collaborated with the similarly named Lower East Side Rock DJ, go-go dancer and performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped Gaga create her onstage fashions. The pair began playing gigs at downtown club venues like Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and Rockwood Music Hall, with their live performance art piece, "Lady Gaga and The Starlight Revue". Billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque RockShow", their act was a low-fi tribute to 1970's variety acts. In August 2007, Lady Gaga and The Starlight Revue were invited to play at American music festival Lollapalooza, where they shocked audiences with their wild performance. The show was critically acclaimed and their performance received rave reviews.
Having initially focused on avant-garde, electronic dance music, Gaga found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the vintage glam-rock of David Bowie and Queen into the mix. "Queen and David Bowie were the key for me...I didn't know what to do until I discovered Bowie and Queen", Gaga says. "When I was playing the New York rock clubs, a lot of record labels thought I was too theatrical. Then, when I auditioned for stage musicals, the producers said I was too pop".
It was through her affiliation with Akon that Gaga started to work on her own new material for her debut album with producer RedOne. Already having a solid selection of electro-glam, David Bowie-esque, Queen inspired songs, Gaga wanted to mix her retro dance beats with urban melodies, a pop chorus and still retain a rock 'n' roll edge. The first song they produced was a mash-up of Mötley Crüe's hit "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.".
By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles, working closely with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame. "The Fame is about how anyone can feel famous", she explains. "Pop culture is art. It doesn’t make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it’s a sharable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle." To this album, Gaga also stated she "married" a lot of different genres – "from Def Leppard drums and handclaps to metal drums on urban tracks".
Gaga started to work with a collective called the "Haus of Gaga", who collaborate with their muse on clothing, stage sets and sounds. "In this industry, you get a lot of stylists and producers thrown at you, but this is my own creative team, modelled on Warhol’s Factory. Everyone is under 26 and we do everything together."
The Fame received mostly positive reviews from critics, according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it has received an average score of 71 out of 100. Times Online described the album as "a fantastic mix of Bowie-esque ballads, dramatic, Queen-inspired midtempo numbers and synth-based dance tracks that poke fun at celebrity-chasing rich kids".
The album's lead single, "Just Dance", was released on 8 April 2008 and has reached number one in seven countries. One of those countries was the US, where "Just Dance" started to receive radio airplay in October, and hit number one in 2009, becoming Gaga's first US number-one single. The second single, "Poker Face", was released on 29 September 2008 and has reached number one in nearly 20 countries, including almost all major music market in the world. "Poker Face" became Gaga's second consecutive number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 2009.
The Fame peaked at number one in the Canada and Ireland and four in Australia. Afterward "Haus of Gaga" turned their focus further upon the US market with Gaga going on her first ever concert tour with fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block. Gaga started her stint with New Kids on the Block in Los Angeles on October 8, and continued through the end of November. She appeared as a featured guest on the song "Big Girl Now" from their new album, The Block. In late October, Gaga released The Fame in the US, where it debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 24,000 units, and has thus far peaked at number four.
On December 5, 2008, Gaga was added to the BBC Sound of 2009 longlist, which features the best rising music stars.Gaga was confirmed as the support act for Pussycat Dolls on their Europe and Oceania arena dates from January until May 2009. The tour started in Aberdeen, Scotland on January 18, and ends in Perth, Australia on May 30.
On December 3, 2008, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the nominees of the 51st Grammy Awards, which took place on 8 February 2009 and was held in the Staples Center. Gaga's "Just Dance" received a nomination for the Best Dance Recording, but lost to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". On February 18, 2009, Gaga, along with Brandon Flowers of rock band The Killers, joined on stage with eletronic dance duo Pet Shop Boys at the 2009 BRIT Awards. Pet Shop Boys performed a medley of their hits when Gaga and Flowers joined for final number, the 1985 hit single "West End Girls".
Gaga's first North American tour, The Fame Ball Tour started on March 12, 2009 and was critically appreciated. Beforehand, Gaga has promised her fans that they can expect plenty of high drama from her upcoming performances, "I consider what I do to be more of an Andy Warhol concept: pop performance art, multimedia, fashion, technology, video, film. And it's all coming together, and it's going to be traveling museum show."
Gaga has also performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and American Idol.
On February 20, 2009, Huliq News reported that Gaga donated tickets and a meet and greet, for any show on her Fame Ball tour, in the US or Canada, to raise money for Odyssey Charter School and elementary schools in Los Angeles affected by budget cuts. Bidding began 17 February 2009 on eBay for what was described as "a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Lady Gaga while positively impacting children's educational needs." The auction, managed by Giving Engine Auction Management, closed 26 February 2009.
Gaga is a natural brunette, though her hair has not been in its natural color since 2008. According to Times Online, her hair is dyed because as a brunette, she kept being mistaken for fellow singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse.
Gaga states that she is "very in to fashion" and that it is "everything". "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." With Times Online, she stated that her love of fashion came from her mother, who was "always very well kept and beautiful." Gaga has also said she channels Versace in everything she does and considers Donatella Versace as her muse in many ways. "She’s iconic and powerful, yet people throw darts at her. She’s definitely provocative." Melissa Magsaysay of Los Angeles Times reported that Gaga could be Donatella's doppelgänger. Magsaysay stated "her aversion to wearing a top and bottom at the same time ... swigging champagne and being fanned by oily men in Speedos [is] very Donatella-esque". Gaga has her own creative production team called "Haus of Gaga" which she handles personally which create some of her fashion, props on stage and hair.
Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashion sense of Gaga and American singer-songwriter Christina Aguilera, noting similarities in their styling, hair and make-up. Aguilera later claimed she was "completely unaware of this person" and even "didn't know if it [Gaga] is a man or a woman". Afterward Gaga released a statement where she welcomed the comparisons because the media attention had provided useful publicity. "She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way." However, she later added that she doesn’t just want to be remembered for the "Christina Aguilera scandal" and that "nobody can copy me, because I can’t be copied."
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