Biography
“Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta” born March 28, 1986, better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter and performance artist. Lady GaGa was only a little child, when she would sing on her mini plastic tape recorder over artists such as Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper hits. She would get spun through the air in her father’s arms to the songs of artists like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The precocious kid would dance round the table at fancy higher West Side restaurants using the breadsticks for a mic.
‘As far back as I can remember, I was an entertainer.’
‘I always had an interest in rock and pop and theatre. When I found Queen and David Bowie is when it really came together for me and I realized I could do all three,’ says Lady GaGa, who found her stage name from Queen’s song ‘Radio Gaga.’ She also cites rock star girlfriends, Peggy Bundy, and Donatella Versace as her fashion icons. ‘I look at those artists as icons in art. It’s not just about the music. It’s about the performance, the attitude, the look ; it’s everything.
That goal could possibly appear lofty, but consider the artist; Lady GaGa is the girl who at age four learned piano only from listening. At the age of fourteen, she performed at open mike nights at clubs such as New York’s the Bitter End by night and was teased for her quirky, wild style by her priory of the sacred Heart school classmates by day. By the time she was seventeen, she became was one of 20 kids in the world to obtain early admission to Tisch college of the arts at NYU.
‘My goal as an artist is to pass a pop record to a world in an exceedingly engaging way,’ claims Lady GaGa, who wrote all of her words, all of her tunes, and played the majority of the synth work on her album, The celebrity (Streamline/Interscope/KonLive). ‘I almost want to trick folks into liking something that is actually cool with a pop song.
‘The celebrity is about how anyone can feel famous,’ she explains. ‘Pop culture is art. It isn’t making you popular to hate pop culture, so I welcomed it and you hear it all over. The celebrity. However it is a sharable celebrity. I would like to invite you all to the party.
The album’s opener and first single,’Just Dance,’ gets the dance floor rocking with it’s'fun, L.A, celebratory vibe.’ As for the equally catchy,’Boys Boys Boys,’ Lady Gaga doesn’t mind wearing her influences on her sleeve. ‘I wished to make the female version of Motley Crue’s ‘Girls Girls Girls,’ but with my own twist. I needed to record a pop song that rockers would enjoy.’
‘Beautiful mucky Rich’ summarizes her time of self-discovery, staying in the Lower East Side and experimenting in drugs and the party scene. ‘That time, and that song, was just me making an attempt to find things out,’ announces Lady GaGa. ‘Once I seized the reigns of my creativity, I fell head over heels in love with that more than i did with the party life.’ On first listen,’Paparazzi’ may come off as a love song to cameras, and in all honestly, Lady GaGa jokes on one level it IS about wooing the paparazzi and desiring fame. But , it isn’t to be taken fully seriously. It’s about everybody’s obsession with that feeling. But, it is also about needing a guy to like you and the fight of whether you may have fame or love or both.’
”Eh Eh” is my simple pop song about finding somebody new and breaking up with the old boyfriend.’
For the new tour for this album, fans will be treated to a more smooth version of what they saw at her critically acclaimed Lollapalooza show in August 2007 and Winter Music meeting performance in March 2008. ‘This new show is the couture version of my handmade downtown show of the past couple of years. Just more cruel and more of a conceptual performance with a vision for pop performance art.’
This is one rising pop star who hasn’t been plucked from a model casting call, born into a famous family, won a reality tv singing contest, or emerged from a teen Sky Television situation comedy. ‘I did this the way you are meant to. I performed at every club in new york city and I bombed in every club and then killed it in every club and I discovered myself as an artist. And, I worked hard.’
Lady GaGa adds with a wink in her eye, ‘And, now, I’m just attempting to change the world one sequin at a time.’