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This song tells the story of Gaga being drunk in a nightclub, telling herself to "Just Dance", connecting to young people and developing a key target audience for her first single. The themes of alcohol and drugs provide Gaga with a darker stage persona, with hidden messages throughout her music adding to her sexualised and seductive star image.

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Lady Gaga - Just Dance (Official Music Video) ft. Colby O'Donis

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"All this debauchery is purposeful fodder for social media and the mainstream press. "She's a perv, but Lady Gaga understands viral marketing better than anyone on the pop scene today," says magazine industry veteran Simon Dumenco."

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In an interview last winter, Lady Gaga recalled her anguish at being ignored as she performed at a bar filled with drunken NYU students. No one paid the slightest attention to her until, fed up, she decided to strip down to her lingerie. "I started playing in my underwear at the piano and I remember everyone was all of a sudden like 'Whoa!' And I said, 'Yeah, you're looking at me now, huh?' "

Yes, we are. In the cacophony of the music business, Gaga has broken through the clutter with muzzle velocity, becoming a superstar in scarcely a year. Her first album, The Fame, is the best-selling debut album of 2009. Her single Just Dance has been viewed 87 million times on YouTube. Gaga's tracks have clocked 20 million downloads this year. One of them, Poker Face, is the most downloaded tune in the history of U.K. digital music.

Before she was Gaga, she was Stefani Germanotta, an obscure go-go dancer who worked burlesque bars in lower Manhattan. A precocious talent, she played piano by age 4 and clinched a seat at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts at 17. But her fame and commercial success hasn't followed the career template of Madonna (a trained dancer who worked her way up the club circuit) or winners of American Idol (where pop stars are selected by celebrity panel).

Gaga's business model starts with an incongruous product. Listen to Gaga's Poker Face and you might imagine it's Britney Spears in a track suit. But watch the video and you'll see a work of conceptual porn. Gaga, a 23-year-old blonde with bulletproof bangs and 3-inch lashes, slinks across stages in gleaming metal bustiers, smoked latex underwear and thigh-high stiletto boots. Performing Paparazzi at the Video Music Awards, she ended the set dangling above the stage in gauzy white La Perla lingerie, horrifying her audience as fake blood gushed from her bosom.

All this debauchery is purposeful fodder for social media and the mainstream press. "She's a perv, but Lady Gaga understands viral marketing better than anyone on the pop scene today," says magazine industry veteran Simon Dumenco. By showing up wearing a bird's nest or a model of the solar system on her head, every Gaga appearance becomes an item (11,500 mainstream media stories cite her this year). "She is directing every frame of her music and her life, imagining how clips will appear on YouTube and what people will tweet after she appears on the VMAs," says Dumenco.

She's meticulous about imagery, especially the sets of her live shows. Preparing for a gig in Los Angeles, she discovered that a stage had been painted a radiant shade of white. "This isn't the freakin' ice capades!" she yelled at the crew. It was repainted.

On Gaga's Twitter page, 1.6 million people track her outlandishness. They learn of Gaga's problems with hairspray and get updates on her father's recent heart surgery. Having that many followers can be perilous. Last month Gaga posted a link to one of her own videos on fashion icon Alexander McQueen's Web site. After a single tweet by Gaga, her rabid fans streamed in and crashed the site's servers.

Gaga leverages buzz by sharing the limelight with other, mightier entertainment brands than her own. "There's an art to fame," Gaga once told Vancouver television. Performing with members of the Bolshoi ballet, she wore a hat designed by Frank Gehry that resembled a mini Bilbao and played a piano painted by Damien Hirst. This year she collaborated with Beyonce and Michael Bolton. In October she showed up on Saturday Night Live with Madonna, where the two of them, dressed in matching dominatrix gear, tussled in a mock catfight (and near kiss).

One surprise: Gaga's outré sexuality hasn't fazed corporate marketers. Branding guru Steve Stoute, who paired Jay-Z with Hewlett-Packard, is working on a handful of tie-ins for Gaga. This month he inked a deal for her with Mac cosmetics. Next will be Gaga-branded electronic sunglasses, he says, similar to the ones that often cover half her face in concert.

Also in the works: a rock opera whose soundtrack may come from her new album, The Fame Monster, released this week. Gaga's 41-city "Monster Ball" tour begins Nov. 27 and reportedly involves 14 costume changes. The tour will be tough to match Gaga's own standards. As she reminded herself in an interview, " 'Now that you have everybody watching, Gaga, you'd better be f***ing great.' "

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Lady Gaga isn't the music industry's new Madonna. She's its new business model.

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Gaga's persona is completely transformed here, as we see her with jazz legend Tony Bennet. The Gaga image appears to be disjointed, from a symbol of sex, power and fame, to a more elegant, sophisticated interpretation of jazz. The Gaga star image is constantly developing, engaging a whole new fanbase through the expansion into a new realm of music.

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Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga - The Lady is a Tramp (from Duets II: The Great Performances)

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We see a distinct change in appearance, less eccentricity and less make up with a more mature star image coinciding with her more mature role as an actress. The evolution of her career is parallel to the evolution of her star image. From risky, bold music choices to sophisticated acting roles.

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Then and Now: Lady Gaga's First & Last Appearances on The Ellen Show

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Gaga launches her own charity, which provides support for young people to "build the kinder, braver world we know is possible". Gaga aims to "validate the emotions of young people everywhere", removing the stigma around mental health.

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Born This Way Foundation is committed to supporting the wellness of young people, and empowering them to create a kinder and braver world.

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This performance contributes to Gaga's star image through the juxtaposition between this audience experience and the previous experiences we are presented with. Previously, audiences were on the edge of their seats, wondering whether to expect a half naked Gaga covered in blood. Now, Gaga distances herself from her previous self and sound in this performance. We see a stripped down Gaga performance, with her voice as the main character in this story, compared to her daunting fashion choices and sexual underpinnings in the past.

The evolution of Gaga's star image is prominent here, from an immature, sexually-charged persona to a sophisticated, elegant performance with a focus solely on her vocal talent.

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Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper - Shallow (From A Star Is Born/Live From The Oscars)

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Turner, G (2014) Understanding Celebrity

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Turner, G (2014) Understanding Celebrity

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Turner (2014) explores celebrity in terms of convergence of media industries, from globalisation and commodification to expansion and diversification into other fields.

Indeed, Gaga diversified into the world of acting, constructing a more commodifiable star image and opening up new opportunities as a well-rounded star.

"television programmes feature guest appearances from celebrities to build their audiences"

"the individual star has a highly identifiable, even iconic, physical image, a specific history for the circulation of this image, and accrues psychological and semiotic depth over time" (De Cordova, 1990: 9).

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This dress displays her daring approach to fashion, unafraid to take risks to add to her desire to shock people and make a name for herself in both the fashion and music sectors.

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Shingler, M (  ) Star Studies: A Critical Guide

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Shingler, M (  ) Star Studies: A Critical Guide

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"Although a star will invariably enact and maintain their established public persona when making such appearances, these do also provide some opportunity for stars to reveal (and audiences to glimpse) aspects of the ‘real person’"

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The ARTPOP album experiments with sex, art, pop and technology through themes of self-empowerment. Gaga continues the same star image as we have seen throughout her career, that can talk about sex confidently, and make statements through music, masked as a pop/dance song.

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For over a decade, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Lady Gaga for short, has had one clear objective in mind: to promote the gay agenda. And The Lady is the first one to admit it: in one of her first cover story interviews ( Out, September 2009), Gaga said that she wanted to "inject gay culture into the mainstream. It's not an underground tool for me. It's my whole life. So I always sort of joke the real motivation is to just turn the world gay." But now, it seems, Mother Monster has escalated her own ambitions for a queerer world: she has managed to turn an epic pillar of queer culture - a classic musical movie whose main character has been portrayed by both Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand - into an even gayer film.

See latest videos, charts and news

After director and co-star Bradley Cooper cast Gaga in the upcoming remake of A Star is Born, she told him about the venues she used to perform in Manhattan as an undiscovered artist, prompting him to change the location of their characters' first meeting to a drag bar. To keep things in the family, Gaga handpicked Drag Race alum Shangela to play her drag mother - and even insisted when the drag superstar initially declined to audition for the role.

Lucky for us, the tools that Gaga uses to achieve her life aspirations are art, drama, humor, and fashion. Here's a look at other winks at the LGBTQ community by the mother of all Little Monsters - some subtle, some scandalous - but all deserving of our applause.
1. She showed her commitment to the LGBTQ community from her early days of über stardom.
In the summer of 2009 Gaga won one of the first of the many, many awards she's received in her career. When the video for her second single "Poker Face" beat out Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" and won International Video of the Year at Canada's MuchMusic Video Awards, Gaga gave a short, sweet, and sincere acceptance speech: she gave thanks "to God and the gays," sending the LGBTQ community a sign of what was to come.
2. She read the U.S. President for his administration's treatment of the LGBTQ community. (And that is not the president you are thinking.)
In that gaylaxy far, far away, when same-sex unions still felt like an impossible dream, and LGBTQ Americans couldn't serve openly in the military, the then-23-year-old overt-the-top singer went to Washington, D.C. to participate in the National Equality March. At a rally held on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building, Gaga was feisty: "ARE YOU LISTENING?" she screamed demanding action from President Obama. "We will continue to push your administration to bring your promise to reality."

In that same weekend, she attended the Human Rights Campaign gala and took a stand when she took the stage. "I'm not going to play one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me. It's about you," she told the black-and-tie crowd. She then sang John Lennon's classic "Imagine," acknowledging the music industry's "tremendous amount of accommodation of homophobia."
3. She went from wearing haute couture to wearing raw meat to protest against Don't Ask Don't Tell
At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, the most nominated artist of the evening arrived at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles wearing "the number-one look in my career" as she recently revealed (a stunning gown from the late designer Alexander McQueen's final collection) accompanied by four members of the U.S. military who had been discharged or resigned because of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Later in the show, when she went back on stage to receive the award for Video of the Year for "Bad Romance," Gaga had changed into the now-infamous "meat dress," as a way to show her anger about the military's anti-LGBTQ policy. "If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones," she later explained to Ellen DeGeneres. The fight for the repeal of DADT, in fact, became a constant in her career - she urged senators to act, she headlined rallies, she made videos that went viral - until it finally became a reality in 2011. And when Donald Trump decided to implement his own trans military ban in 2017, she was quick to react: "The message you have just sent has endangered the lives of people all over the United States and overseas bravely serving our nation," she tweeted.
4. She went off Target
For the much anticipated follow-up to her massively successful first studio album The Fame (and its subsequent multi-Grammy-winning reissues), Gaga struck a business deal with Target: An exclusive edition of her sophomore album, Born This Way, with remixes and additional studio cuts, to be sold exclusively by the retailer. "Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGBT charity groups and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they've made in the past... our relationship is hinged upon their reform in the company to support the gay community and to redeem the mistakes they've made supporting those groups," she told Billboard in an interview in February, 2011. Apparently they didn't do enough. A month later, Gaga made news when she announced that the partnership was off.
5. She made history with Billboard's Hot 100's 1,000th No. 1
Sir Elton John gagged when he first heard "Born This Way." Gaga's third No. 1 single was "the new 'I Will Survive'," he told Entertainment Weekly, "the new gay anthem." Released in early 2011, as the first single of the eponymous album, the club-ready banger was a celebration of queerness, self-acceptance and empowerment. It instantly became a favorite Gay Pride classic: "No matter gay, straight, or bi/ Lesbian, transgender life/ I'm on the right track, baby/ I was born to survive" were words that became as radio mainstream as possible. The following year Gaga, along with her mother Cynthia Germanotta, created the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit committed to "supporting the wellness of young people and empowering them to create a kinder and braver world."
6. She rocked the vote, for the social media generation.
In 2012, when the presidential ballot in four U.S. states also contained marriage-related measures, Gaga participated in a social media campaign that urged people to get out and vote. The initiative called "The Four 2012" was modeled after MTV's iconic Rock the Vote campaign from the 1990s, with it aimed to increase awareness and vote participation. Gaga recorded a video message to explain how voters could make a difference, and how crucial vote participation was: "I just wanted to remind those of you who live in Maine, Minnesota, Washington, or Maryland that you can actually vote for marriage equality on the ballot this year."
7. Mother Monster takes on Mother Russia!
When the Born This Way Ball Tour hit Russia at the end 2012, Gaga was accused of breaking the city's anti-gay propaganda law. She was threatened with arrest and a $50,000 fine, as Reuters reported, but that didn't stop her. The show went on as planned, to the delight of her Russian fans, and a few days later she brought her message of inclusiveness to Moscow. Less than a year later, Russia's lower house of parliament passed a similar law that criminalized any form of pro-gay speech or public display of affection anywhere in the country, and Mother got pissed. Gaga took to Facebook and Twitter to express her anger, and vowed to fight for her Russian fans. "The Russian government is criminal. Oppression will be met with revolution. Russian LGBTs you are not alone. We will fight for your freedom," she wrote.
8. She helps LGBTQ homeless youth.
Over the 2016 holidays Gaga paid a surprise visit to LGBTQ homeless youth at New York's Ali Forney Center. "I spent a beautiful morning w/[LGBTQ] youth @AliForneyCenter the largest drop-in center in the [world]. I brought [presents] & led them in a group meditation," she later tweeted in an emoji-filled message. That wasn't the first time that Gaga had used her voice and star power to bring attention to this cause. During the Monster Ball Tour she paired up with Virgin Mobile to recruit volunteers to help.

"More than 2 million young people will experience some form of homelessness this year. One in every five homeless youth in the community identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender," she said. "This makes me very angry. Now it's time for us to fight back. Thanks to my partnership with Virgin Mobile and the Re*Generation Campaign, hundreds of my fans have donated their time working at homeless youth shelters over the course of this year's tour, and have all gotten free tickets to see the show. But we still need to do more."
9. She performed "Born this Way" in front of Mike Pence (and over 115 million people)
Just a few weeks into the Trump presidency, Lady Gaga took the stage at halftime of the Super Bowl, after weeks of speculation: how would the left-leaning, Hillary supporter, and LGBTQ rights advocate use her voice in the world's biggest platforms? While the general consensus was that Gaga toned down the politics and focused on delivering a stunning, highly entertaining and memorable - but politically tame - all-American performance, she did manage to sing "God Bless America" as a subtle message of inclusion and unity, and sang the chorus of "Born this Way" to one of the nation's most prominent anti-equality politicians.
10. She made us go: Oh. My. Gaga!
There's a very real possibility that the premiere or RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 left you gagging until way after Untucked. Mother Monster herself appears as Ronnie, "New Jersey's #1 Lady Gaga impersonator." The moment the queens realize the real T is cathartic. Eureka tells Gaga what so many in the community have experienced: "I've been the closest to death, and you've pulled me out of it. You don't realize what you do for people, and how much you inspire people like me and all of us," she said fighting tears. "You allow us to be who we are."
11. She gave us a "Come to Mama" moment.
At the opening night of the Joanne World Tour in 2017, Gaga was visibly surprised when a fan threw a pride flag onto the stage. "Excuse me sir," she asked one of the security people guarding the stage. "May I have that gay pride flag?" She then picked it up and held it like a trophy as more than 15,000 concertgoers screamed in pure gay ecstasy at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. "I have a lot to say about this issue," she said before reciting a few verses from her song "Come to Mama:" "But the most important thing that I've got to say about it is that everybody's got to love each other," she said. And in the unlikely event that an anti-LGBTQ person happened to be in the venue dancing to Poker Face, she covered all of her bases: "So for any of you who don't believe in equality that are here this evening, come to mama."
12. She still likes to dress up in rainbow colors and celebrate Pride on the streets of her hometown.
Mother Monster doesn't forget her roots. On Pride Day this year she posted a picture on Instagram, posing in front of her pre-fame job (an Italian Trattoria on located Manhattan's Upper West Side and owned by her parents.)

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12 Times Lady Gaga Showed Love for the LGBTQ Community

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Here's a look at the winks at the LGBTQ community from the mother of all Monsters - some subtle, some scandalous - but all deserving of our applause.

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Gaga arrives on a white horse as a way to promote her new album 'ARTPOP', adding to her star image of eccentricity and attention-seeking.

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During her performance, Gaga jumps off the roof, displaying her fearlessness, returning back to her bold, daring ways. This jump is a metaphorical symbol of her power and ability to take risks, whether that be physically like this one here, or if that's through her appearance, fashion, personality or sexuality.

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Gaga is described as "the new madonna" and "a catholic schoolgirl who transformed herself", as one of the most fascinating people of 2009. This interview is fascinating, as most assume Gaga is an artificial persona used for attention seeking and fame. Yet, the Gaga we see here explains that "every bit of me is devoted to love and art", she "tries to be a teacher to young fans who feel just like I felt", "I felt like a freak, I want to free them of their fears so they can create their own space in the world". Gaga is a symbol of inspiration, individuality and confidence, she is unstoppable and fearless in her ambitions to make a difference her fans lives. Gaga likes pushing boundaries and the desire to shock people, describing herself as androgynous, alongisde addressing the penis rumour.

Gaga is put into an extremely vulnerable position, exposing her fantasies about sexual relations with women.

Gaga also discusses her father's open heart surgeries.

Such in-depth, personal interviews like this one here blurs the boundaries between audience and star, incorporating values of closeness, authenticity, relatability and often sympathy for a star, as oppose to feelings of distance, hierarchy and fame.

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[HD] Lady Gaga Barbra Walters Full Interview Admits Bisexual Most Fascinating People Romance Singer

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Joe Biden's Inauguration- Gaga sings National Anthem

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Joe Biden's Inauguration- Gaga sings National Anthem

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This performance is a perfect portrayal of the evolution of the 'Lady Gaga' persona. Here, Gaga displays more maturity and sophistication, completely distaning herself from the 'pop princess' stereotype she previously withheld. Audiences witness a new 'Lady Gaga' persona in a social context we would never have seen the iconic 'Just Dance' sexually liberating Gaga image.

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Lady Gaga Performs The National Anthem At Joe Biden’s Inauguration | MSNBC

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Gaga launched her own make up line, with the name stemming from the name of her creative team Haus of Gaga. The brand promotes 'kindness and inclusivity, forever'.

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Haus Labs by Lady Gaga - Supercharged Clean Artistry Makeup

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Supercharged clean artistry makeup powered by innovation. Shop eyes, lips, and face color cosmetics infused with skincare benefits. Always Cruelty-Free and Vegan.

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Jonathon Ross Show, Gaga explains the meaning behind "Poker Face"

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Jonathon Ross Show, Gaga explains the meaning behind "Poker Face"

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Gaga explains to Jonathon Ross the meaning behind her song, 'Poker Face', about fanaticising sexual relationships with women and "its about poker facing with your sexuality". She is honest, open and presents a liberating view of sex, relationships and gender. For her fans, the Gaga persona is a symbol of freedom, suggesting its okay for them to be confused in their sexuality, and can feel comfortable knowing they share similar thoughts and feelings to the icon herself.

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Lady Gaga explains 'Poker Face' - Friday Night With Jonathan Ross - BBC One

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Stage name derived from Queen's "Radio Gaga"

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Stage name derived from Queen's "Radio Gaga"

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Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta formulated her stage name, taking inspiration from the Queen song "Radio Gaga" and the way her friends describe her as 'theatrical'.

The 'Gaga' persona was then constructed with the influence of the flamboyant, unique star personas such as Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, with an emphasis on sexual liberation, eccentricity, bold fashion and individualistic style.

Audiences question the difference between Stefani and Lady Gaga. Is 'Gaga' a carefully constructed professional persona made solely for the stage? Or is there aspects of Stefani's private personality that shine through this perfect portrayal of the star image of 'Gaga'.

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After being a songwriter for Sony/ATV, Lady Gaga released her own debut album in 2008, titled "The Fame", featuring hit songs such as "Just Dance", "Papparazzi", "Poker Face", "Love Game" and "I Like it Rough". The album received 5 Grammy nominations, taking home 2. This is the first time audiences are presented with the star image of Lady Gaga, witnessing her risqué, sexually liberating music with an edgy choice of music videos for a pop album, some even resembling conceptual porn. The album describes Gaga's love for 'fame', as well as exploring themes such as alcohol, sex, love, drugs and sexual identity. Here, we see a star image of a pop star who isn't afraid to make a statement and incorporate serious topics into her music.

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This album was intended to be a deluxe reissue of her debut studio album, having been so successful, but instead released 8 new songs as a standalone EP. This album featured songs such as "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". Gaga develops her persona on a much deeper level as this album deals with the dark side of fame, coinciding with her public appearances making controversial statements towards the industry. The Gaga persona encourages audiences to look at the celebrity industry in a different light, using this album as a vehicle to provoke thought, distancing herself from mainstream pop artists.

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According to "Variety", “Telephone” has racked up a massive 346 million views and inspired countless thinkpieces, as well as criticisms". Gaga "takes everything to the next level" in this bold statement, she is referred to as a "visual artist" with "lots of ideas" as this 10 minute video is filled with iconic looks from both Gaga and Beyoncé. All of her songs have a deeper meaning, and in this case "Telephone" has multiple interpretations", exploring the darker side of stalking, as well as a commentary on the idea that American young people are inundated with technology. Gaga emphasises that she is not just a pop star, but wants to make a difference.

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On March 15, 2010, Lady Gaga's " Telephone " music video, featuring Beyonce, hit YouTube. To say that it made an impact in pop culture would be an understatement.

The sprawling, nearly 10-minute video started with Gaga in prison (picking up directly after her crimes in the "Paparazzi" music video) and followed her and Beyonce as they took a joyride in the Pussy Wagon from Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" on their way to poison an entire diner. On the way, there's everything from sunglasses adorned with cigarettes to PlentyOfFish.com product placement to a killer dance routine done in American flag-themed outfits. There is, put simply, a lot to dissect.

And dissect the internet did. In the decade since it was released, "Telephone" has racked up a massive 346 million views and inspired countless thinkpieces, as well as criticisms.

Jonas Åkerlund, the Swedish filmmaker who directed and co-wrote the music video, spoke to Variety 10 years after its release about its hectic two-day shoot, improvising lines with Beyonce and Gaga and if fans ever will get a sequel after the mysterious "to be continued" note at the end of "Telephone."

Tell me about how you and Gaga came up with the concept for the "Telephone" music video.
We had a practice run on "Paparazzi" like, a year earlier. So we kind of knew each other a little bit. I learned early on that Gaga is a very visual-driven type of artist - she's filled with ideas. So my job was basically to filter and just take in all her stuff and try to make a reality out of it, you know? It was a really good collaboration, actually, a respectful collaboration, as always, with her, I have to say. But yeah, I don't remember exactly where everything came from. Like we always do, she talked to me on the phone and I wrote everything down and added stuff to it. It's a back and forth, and that's how we do it.

"Telephone" was a direct sequel to "Paparazzi." When you were working on "Paparazzi," did you have an idea of where it would go?
Not really, to be honest. It wasn't really meant to be a series. I kind of like the idea of putting "to be continued" at the end [ laughs], just to make it more exciting. And then that kind of became like, "Oh, wait a minute. Let's continue." And then we ended "Telephone" with "to be continued" as well. It's kind of fun, and it would be cool to have a third one coming.

And the internet has certainly been clamoring for that. Have you ever discussed doing a "Telephone" part 2?
Not really, not really - [ pause] yeah, we have actually. I don't remember what song it was - we started to write it, but then we ended up doing something else.

The "Telephone" shoot was so ambitious, so big-budget. How many days did you spend on set?
We shot the whole thing in two days, which is pretty incredible. It had everything that's kind of like a production nightmare, with wardrobe changes and car stuff and different locations. So we did one day around that jail, and then we did one day out in the desert. So it was a two-day shoot, and I remember clearly, while running out of time, when Beyonce showed up, and Beyonce and Gaga were practicing, like, literally there on the spot, figuring out the choreography while we were waiting. It was crazy. We were actually meant to shoot Beyonce's performance part out in the desert, but then we lost daylight, so we improvised and put it in that little weird motel room. It was part of the location, where we were. We shot that whole part, like her speaking on the phone, all that stuff, in that motel room.

Was there ever a moment where you thought, "Oh my god, we're not going to be able to pull this together"?
I mean, every music video is like that, because the ambition level is always higher than the budget and the time you have. You always want to push it as much as you can. And I knew that this was an ambitious idea because we wanted to tell a story, we wanted to have dialogue, we wanted to have choreography, all those things. It should've been really, like, a four- or five-day shoot, to be honest.

What was the casting process like for the actors in the opening prison sequence?
It's so long ago, but I remember I wanted some bodybuilder girls in there, so we had some of those - you know, just like, rough. And the styling and all that, that's the fun part with Gaga, because you can do stuff with her that you can't necessarily do with other artists. She allows you to go fully all the way with stuff, that's kind of the fun part of it.

Gaga said to me, "I was right on the edge of getting bored with making music videos. MTV was never really good for me. They didn't like me at MTV, I was always censored, and my ideas were always too ambitious or too big or too long, and they censored me and they cut my stuff." There was even a point where MTV, like, approved treatments for us. They really controlled what to show in a really horrible way. So Gaga was, like, the first artist that came to me and said, "F- MTV, we can do this, we don't need them. We can do this all online, on YouTube." So that kind of made me excited again and realized what music videos could really be about, and the reason why I started music videos - all those things came back to me with her amazing attitude and her ideas and everything.

The video did feel like a rebellion in a lot of ways - the "I told you she didn't have a d-" line comes to mind, in particular. Whose idea was that?
That was my idea. It wasn't part of the treatment, I added that as a voiceover in the edit. Right around that time, there was speculation and rumors that, you know, Gaga was not a woman for some reason. And those were just, like, stupid rumors, obviously. And I wanted to make a thing out of it. We did it in the post-production.

After that prison sequence, you have the scene where Gaga and Beyonce officially join forces - Beyonce's feeding Gaga, and they're swapping these crazy lines. What were you trying to convey with that scene?
To be honest, I think that we improvised the dialogue. I think we had a few ideas written down, but I think we improvised the dialogue. I'm pretty sure that's what we did. You know, there's the whole thing with like, "you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger" and all that stuff. That just came from Gaga. She just made that s- up. I remember we shot a lot more dialogue than we ended up using in the actual video. But we wanted to have dialogue in the beginning, middle, end, to make it more like a short film, I guess, than a music video.

Do you remember how you got the actual Pussy Wagon from "Kill Bill"?
I know exactly how we got that, because we had another car, and then Gaga had a meeting at Quentin's house, and she sent me a picture and said, "This is in Quentin's driveway. Do we want it?" And I was like, "Yeah! We want it." And I think it didn't run or something, so we had to fix it up. And we fixed it up, and that's why we ended up using it.

And Quentin was fully okay with it?
Yeah, I mean, thanks to Gaga being at his house, I guess. I would've never thought about it, because I remember we already had another car. This was literally, like, a day before the shoot or something.

There are so many iconic looks jammed into those ten minutes, from both Beyonce and Gaga. Do you have a favorite costume or outfit?
Oh, I mean, that's impossible. I like the whole diner scene, with the choreography, the American flag kind of stuff. But like you said, it's overwhelming, the iconic looks in that video. This is how it is to work with Gaga. I write in the treatment that she walks out on the jail courtyard smoking a cigarette, and then when she shows up, she has the glasses with cigarettes. That's kind of the collaboration-type that you have with her, and it's the same with the diner. I remember writing in the treatment that there's, like, an American flag on the wall or something like that, and then she shows up in a full American flag outfit. It's that kind of collaboration with her.

She takes everything to the next level.
I don't even think she thinks it is the next level. I think it's just the way she thinks, the way she sees the world, and that's what I love about her. For me, making music videos and trying to make an impact and trying to touch people or move people or whatever it is, making memorable images that are supposed to be attached to music, you know, she's like a dream client. She works harder than most people I work with, and she encourages you to become a little better than you think you are. So that's, to me, everything I need. It really takes two to tango - I can never make great videos without an artist who wants it, or believes in it, and pushes you.

Do you remember her being particularly passionate about getting something in the video? Like, "no, this has to be in here"?
No, I don't think so. I mean, we really wanted Beyonce to show up. When you do these collaborations, they basically do favors for each other to show up and do each other's videos. And unfortunately, we were shooting outside L.A., so we knew that was a long drive for Beyonce, but thank god she did. That was the one thing that I kept thinking about, you know: "I really hope she shows up."

You worked with Gaga before "Telephone," and you've worked with her since on "John Wayne." Do you have plans to work with her again as she releases new music?
I don't know. We have a good thing going, and I show up and do my thing. If I had it my way, for sure. I love her to death. I've said it from day one: the first time I saw her play the piano on YouTube, I said, "This is, like, one of the most talented artists I've ever seen." She can do anything she puts her head to, and that's what she's doing now. Again, for me as a director, she's a dream person to work with.

Do you remember the last time you watched the "Telephone" music video?
No, I don't. Maybe I should've watched it before this interview [ laughs]. Sorry! But you know, I'm an editor too, so I know every frame of it. Once it's digitized in my head, it's there. So I do remember everything.

Gaga said in an interview after it was first released that she wanted the video to be about "the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology." Ten years later, I think we seeing that concept even more. Do you think the video might resonate even more in 2020?
I don't know. I do know that music videos are not really meant to get a long life. They're always just meant to be in that moment. Like, they used to be [made] to sell an album, like at that moment. But now, if you're lucky, you get a video that people remember, and if people remember 10 years after, that's a good thing. And people seem to appreciate it. I still have people tell me they love it.

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Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' Video Turns 10: A Look Back at the Epic Two-Day Shoot

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In honor of the 10th anniversary of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" music video, director Jonas Åkerlund looks back on the epic two-day shoot.

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2011- 2nd Studio Album released 'Born This Way

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2011- 2nd Studio Album released 'Born This Way

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This album expressed themes of self-empowerment, taking inspiration from earlier music eras and comparisons to Madonna. Gaga combined sexual and religious imagery in her music videos, with hit songs, "Born This Way", "Judas" and "Express Yourself". The album cover was criticised, removing all of Gaga's stereotypic features of her persona: futuristic sunglasses and asymmetrical haircuts. However the album proved to be a huge success, with Gaga developing a new persona, surrounding themes of individualism, moving away from her past themes of rough sex to sexuality and liberation.

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This is another instalment of Behind The Cover where we look at the story behind the music and cover art of an iconic album from the past few decades. This feature is brought to you by Pure Music Manufacturing.

The second studio album released on May 2011 by American singer Lady Gaga was titled, "Born This Way." The album, which featured a continuation of the synth-pop and dance-pop music of her debut album, became a huge success. It debuted in the top five of every single major music chart around the world including the US Billboard 200. It went on to sell over one-million copies in its first week which broke a five-year record as the highest first-week album sales. Additionally, an estimated 440,000 copies were sold at 99 cents each in the first two days of release via Amazon. The album has since sold six-million copies and was identified as the third global best-selling album of 2011 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

The Born This Way Album Cover is a whole different story. The artwork features Gaga fused into a motorcycle. The only wording on the cover is the album title written in chrome lettering across the top. Critics and fans panned the album cover. In fact, The Guardian's Sean Michaels referred to it as looking "more like a cheap Photoshop job than the most anticipated album of the year." Andrew Martin of Prefix called it "a reject from the last Terminator film."

A special edition cover was also released which featured just Gaga's head from a standard edition cover with the artist's name and the album title appearing in the top left corner of the cover. Gone is the chrome lettering and the impact font was used instead with the album title being highlighted in white with black letters.

Interestingly enough, the words 'special' or 'deluxe' do not appear anywhere on the cover. That is because Gaga herself disliked either of them. However, she was rather fond of the cover that had her fused to a motorcycle. One critic pointed out that the design erased all of Gaga's unique visuals such as her futuristic sunglasses, asymmetrical haircuts and her newly touted "magic horns" and reduced her to parts of a chopper.

Regardless, the numbers don't lie and although the album art for this release was not well received, the music was and in some cases that is just how it goes. There is no telling whether or not a slick album cover will increase sales provided that the content contained within is of good quality. However, in the case of Lady Gaga's "Born The Way" it is fortunate that the disc was not judged by its cover.

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Born This Way Album Cover By Lady Gaga | Pure Music

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The Born This Way Album Cover is a whole different story. The artwork features Gaga fused into a motorcycle. The only wording on the cover is the album title written in chrome lettering across the top.

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Emerges from Egg Vessel at "Born This Way" Performance

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Emerges from Egg Vessel at "Born This Way" Performance

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Gaga emerging from an egg adds to her shock-factor star image. Audiences don't know what to expect from the thrill and excitement of a Gaga performance.

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Lady Gaga has proved time and time again over the years that she's more than willing to go the extra mile in the name of her craft, so it should come as no surprise that she once spent three days inside of a plastic egg just to make sure she stayed in the right headspace.

The pop star took a look back at some of her most iconic outfits in a new video for British Vogue, pausing when she came across her unforgettable, enigmatic entrance to the 2011 Grammys. "We would call this an outfit," she said while looking at the photo. "Everyone calls this the egg but it's actually a vessel that was designed by Hussein Chalayan." She went on to explain, "I was very particular about the way the fashion looked for this performance in so much as the night before the performance I said, 'The fashion's wrong, we don't have it. We need it to be latex. We need nude latex.'" Both Gaga and the crew that carried her down the red carpet in the egg were dressed entirely in swaths of tawny latex.

But Gaga pointed out that this last-minute wardrobe change was no easy feat to pull of, especially a decade ago. She said, "If you know anything about looking for latex, years ago it was very difficult to find latex anywhere other than a sex shop, or-where we found this latex was a bus company had latex that they were using to cover the seats of their busses and we found the latex and we asked if we could buy it from them. So everybody's fashion that's made here was made from the fabric from seats for a bus."

But it wasn't enough just to have the right look, the musician also needed to be in exactly the right state of mind for the big night which meant going to some pretty extreme lengths. "I was in the egg for three days," she told the magazine. "To be honest, at award shows, especially during this time, I didn't like to talk to people. I always felt that it threw me off with my performance so this in a lot of ways is really representative of my devotion to my craft in that I really wanted to be with myself."

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Lady Gaga Says She "Was in the Egg for Three Days" Before 2011 Grammys

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Lady Gaga says she "was in the egg for three days" before the 2011 Grammys, explaining to 'British Vogue' that she didn't want anything to throw off her performance and she's very dedicated to her craft.

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Gaga's performance at the VMA's is one to remember. Gaga controls the stage, ending the performance struggling to walk, being covered in blood and hanging onto a rope being lifted into the air. Her performance makes another bash at the celebrity industry and toxic celebrity culture. Gaga defines herself as a household name, using music in a different way to other artists of her time. This performance is both disturbing yet fascinating. Audiences are curious at this wonderful experience of 'Gaga', immersed within a world which sees the industry in a completely different light.

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Lady Gaga - Paparazzi (Live at 2009 MTV VMAs) (4K Remaster Preview)

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In her first performance, we see Gaga wearing the silver gem-stoned glasses seen on the cover of her album. Here, Gaga is constructing her star persona early-on as a symbol of fashion, style and iconic, memorable accessories.

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Lady Gaga - Just Dance - DEBUT ON TV PERFORMANCE (Live in So You Think You Can Dance 2008) - HD

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Gaga performs with Elton John at the Grammys. This reflects on her star persona, in understanding the depths of her success at such an early stage in her career. Was her success solely based on her musical talent, or does the 'Gaga' persona have a role to play in her globally recognised brand. During this performance, she screams "I wanna be a star", emphasising the desire for fame and using the bold, confident, eccentric Gaga persona to do so.

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LADY GAGA MEDLEY FT E. JOHN GRAMMYS 2010

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"I'm the boss"- see a genuine, behind the scenes of Gaga.

Gaga presents an authentic star image in a personal rather than professional setting of a car.

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2011- Keeps her eyes shut during press conference

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2011- Keeps her eyes shut during press conference

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As though her bold fashion choices with black leather gem-stoned jacket and leather beret weren't enough, Gaga made the decision to leave her eyes closed during the entirety of a press conference at a charity event to support earthquake relief. Audiences question why she did this, whether that be for attention, or maybe a PR stunt? Perhaps reflecting on her bold fashion, Gaga makes a bold statement about how she struggles to open her eyes to a world where destruction and suffering occurs.

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Lady Gaga keeps her eyes shut during press conference

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A rumour circulated the press about Gaga having a penis. She decided not to decline the rumour, stating "My fans don't care and neither do I". She presents a liberating star image of gender fluidity, suggesting freedom and confidence. Despite this, she discusses the topic as unnecessary, suggesting she is solely focussed on her music, rather than silly gossip. She is above the idea of celebrity gossip in the music industry and instead more focussed on her career, her music and her shows.

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2009-ABC News Interview, explains VMA performance

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2009-ABC News Interview, explains VMA performance

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The performance is described as anything from disturbing to engaging and memorable. Gaga explains that it was for "you to decide what it means to you". Gaga targets audiences directly, creating a close relationship and again provoking thought in her fans. She aimed to "fill in the blank image that no one's ever gotten to see", referring to stars from Marilyn Monroe to Princess Diana. She illustrates the demise of stars in the celebrity industry, suggesting she is real, authentic and meaningful in her approach to making a difference with music.

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Lady Gaga interview for ABC News (September 30, 2009)

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Interview with Paul O'Grady- discussing fame, fashion and fans.

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Interview with Paul O'Grady- discussing fame, fashion and fans.

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Here we see Gaga in an authentic position, away from the professional restraints of a performance. Gaga presents herself as coming from a very much 'girl next door' background. She has worked hard to get to this position, describing her longstanding love for fashion, gluing gemstones on $3 bras before she could afford the immense fashion wardrobe she has acquired now. She emphasises that she has not let fame take her creativity away from her, focussing on pleasing fans and putting every penny she makes into her shows as she doesn't care about the money. Gaga is put into a vulnerable position, being asked questions from young fans, yet portrays an authentic, 'normal' personality, one which doesn't seem fixed, constructed or just for show. This contradicts the Gaga we see on stage, providing a contradictory tension between the private and personal portrayal of the Gaga persona.

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This album presents a raw, authentic Gaga, with no autotune and full attention on her vocals. This is a significant shift in her star image, from solely focussed on performance to now an emphasis on nothing but the talent of her voice.

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This was Gaga's first collaborative album. She enjoyed a close friendship with Tony Bennett, whom was found of not only her vocal talent, but also her eccentricity and uniqueness. Due to this collaboration, Gaga was introduced to a whole new world of jazz, and as a result, new audiences were introduced to the star that is Lady Gaga. Many found a new appreciation for Gaga than ever before, hearing her authentic voice, away from the ideologies and constraints of the stereotype of a 'pop princess'

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This outfit was adressed as commentary on not wearing fur, adding to Gaga's persona as a social activist.

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Published by PETA.

Genius! In what looks like an amphibian homage to our "baby" coat, Lady Gaga has chosen a "ribbeting " way to tell the world that skins aren't in.

Check out what she said about the newest addition to her wacky wardrobe:

"The Kermit the Frog outfit is by an incredible designer by the name of Jean[-Charles] de Castelbajac, and he does a lot of museum art fashion pieces. ... I really loved this one in particular because I thought it was commentary on not wearing fur, 'cause I hate fur and I don't wear fur. We were all laughing in the house about how it looks like a pile of dead Kermits."

Written by Shawna Flavell

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Lady Gaga Wears Coat Made of Kermits | PETA

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Genius! In what looks like an amphibian homage to our "baby" coat, Lady Gaga has chosen a "ribbeting " way to tell the world that skins aren't in.

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2013: Sea Urchin Showgirl Inflatable Dress

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2013: Sea Urchin Showgirl Inflatable Dress

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Sea Urchin Showgirl inflatable dress that she wore on the finale night of her artRAVE:The Artpop Ball World Tour in Paris. This dress saw a huge amount of press coverage and a video of Lady Gaga inflating her dress in front of the paparazzi has 11 million views on Youtube.

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Lady Gaga MOST INCREDIBLE dress ever in Paris

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Here, audiences witness the rise and fall trajectory of Gaga's star image. Watching the battle of her struggle and recovery. Again, presenting a star image of authenticity and narrative of normalness and intimacy.

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Lady Gaga admitted to using drugs as a way to cope with anxiety and the pressures of fame. Admitting this places Gaga in a vulnerable position, allowing audiences to feel a sense of 'normalness' and relatability, where there would normally be great distance between such a celebrity. Gaga almost removes a layer of professionalism by opening up about her struggles, constructing a star image of genuineness, authenticity and intimacy.

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Lady Gaga has spoken candidly again about her drug use.

The singer says she used drugs to cope with the pain of her hip injury, which left her in a wheelchair after undergoing surgery last February to treat damage cause to her cartilage on her Born This Way tour.

"I have been addicted to it and it's ultimately related to anxiety coping and it's a form of self-medication and I was smoking up to 15-20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco," she told US radio station Z100. "I was living on a totally other psychedelic plane, numbing myself completely, and looking back I do see now that some of it had to do with my hip pain... I didn't know where the pain was coming from so I was just in a lot of pain and very depressed all the time and not really sure why."

The singer went on to say that her addiction to various drugs had grown worse as a method of dealing with fame. "I've been addicted to various things since I was young," she said. "Most heavily over the past seven years... But, the truth is that it is very hard to be famous."

She continued: "It's wonderful to be famous because I have amazing fans. But it is very, very hard to go out into the world when you are not feeling happy and act like you are because I am a human being too and I break, and I think there is an assumption... that I cannot break because I am an alien woman and I am unstoppable."

The singer then said that she is working to get to a place where she doesn't have to use drugs to be creative. "I do put that pressure on myself; I have to be high to be creative. I need that, that's an error in my life that happened for over 10 years... Can I be brilliant without it? I know that I can be and I have to be because I want to live, and I want my fans to want to live."

Lady Gaga released her fourth album 'ARTPOP' yesterday (November 10). A string of tracks including the piano-led, Rick Rubin-produced ballad 'Dope', 'Mary Jane Holland', the R Kelly collaboration 'Do What U Want' and singles 'Applause' and Venus' have already been revealed by the singer.

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Lady Gaga opens up about drug addiction: 'I have to be high to be creative'

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The singer admits she uses drugs to cope with the pressures of fame

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Gaga helps photographer who falls on red carpet

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Gaga helps photographer who falls on red carpet

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Although a small gesture, this moment gives us another insight into Gaga's authentic persona. She is genuinely helping someone. although, can we question this is just because the cameras are on?

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Lady Gaga rushes to help photographer who falls on Oscars 2023 red carpet | New York Post

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Seeing Gaga in her own home removes the boundaries between star and audiences. Viewers can see Gaga in her own private, personal space away from the spotlight. It positions Gaga as relatively vulnerable, in a domestic setting, separating the public from the private. The interaction feels genuine and spontaneous, allowing us to see the 'real' Lady Gaga behind the scenes.

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2011- Ellen show-  "you're not just a great singer, you're a show" 

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2011- Ellen show-  "you're not just a great singer, you're a show" 

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Ellen describes the persona of Lady Gaga as "not just a great singer, you're a show". Her star image is commodified, presented as a Gaga experience. Her professional persona is presented as inhumane, far from reach of the individual. Indeed, Ellen goes on to say "theres no one like you", not since David Bowie. Fans are in awe of the whole construction of the Lady Gaga experience.

The name Lady Gaga, and all that the name entails, is presented as a commodified star persona. She is a full experience that audiences can buy into.

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Here, the Gaga persona is presented as a young, innocent, genuine 23 year old girl pursuing her love of music. She appreciates Ellen for her contributions to women and the gay community. She also discusses her rise to fame, working hard and playing in clubs since she was 13. Gaga built her own fame from scratch, constructing her own authentic persona as a rising pop star.

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Gaga expresses her authentic self- "Don't be nervous I'm incredibly normal" "I'm shockingly normal"

She describes her experience of being starstruck seeing Al Pacino on set.

"I really love to make the public smile and that's why I do what I do"

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Alison Interviews Lady Gaga! | This Morning

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Gaga discusses acts of kindness, in particular wearing a mask during COVID-19 pandemic. We see a 'normal' Gaga- authentic self.

She discusses the darkness in her life, she hated being famous. She feels used up by the "very entity she created". Her real name was left behind. "My biggest enemy is Lady Gaga"

Lady Gaga was exhausted trying to keep up with her ever-changing star persona. She opens up about her mental health issues and self-harming. Audiences can feel a sense of relatability to this star image, hating yourself and suffering with mental health issues and suicide whilst being alone.

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Lady Gaga: "I found a way to love myself again"

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In a similar social context to Vogue's 73 Questions, audiences are provided with opportunity to see the 'real', the 'private' and the 'behind the scenes' version of her star image. Even though this is a video on Youtube, it feels like an interaction with very little mediation.

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Lady Gaga On Her Celebrity Crush | FAQs | @LADbible

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Gaga suprises a Superfan with a Makeup Tutorial

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Gaga suprises a Superfan with a Makeup Tutorial

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Lady Gaga Surprises a Superfan with a Makeup Tutorial | Allure

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Gaga plays 'Ally', a struggling musician, who manages to find her voice with help from an older musician who helps get her into the industry.

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As Vogue explains: In more recent times, however, Gaga has traded in her headline-worthy fits in favor of classic Old Hollywood gowns—a fitting move, given she’s turned into an A-list actor herself.

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Collaboration with Ariana Grande during COVID-19 lockdown

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Collaboration with Ariana Grande during COVID-19 lockdown

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The pair wore masks due to filming during COVID-19, displays a sense of ordinariness and humaneness to Gaga's persona.

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Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande - Rain On Me (live)

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Gaga dresses as her male alter-ego for this performance. This develops the Gaga star image to an even deeper level than before, exploring themes of gender fluidity through this surprising, engaging performance with rock superstar Brian May. We could question whether Gaga goes back to her roots, taking inspiration from the incredibly flamboyant stage persona of Freddie Mercury for this appearance as the ever-changing, unpredicatable Gaga persona.

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Gaga employs an accent for this role, attributing to her respect and seriousness as a multi-media talented artist.

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According to Looper (2021) Don Perignon calls this collaboration "a fabulous, exuberant, exhilarating celebration – a joyful convergence that rewards the inspiration to create, to reinvent ourselves and write our own story." The brand made use of Gaga's star image, considering notions of self-reinvention and individualism as a means to encourage people to buy into the Don Perignon brand experience, now featuring Gaga as an emblem of individuality which leads to economic success for the brand.

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Gaga headlined the Doritos Bold Stage to raise money for her Born This Way Foundation. This idea of this festival to be 'bold' coincides with Gaga's star image, whilst also contributing to her own personal charity. Gaga's involvement is a win-win for both sides, encouraging people to attend the show sponsored by Doritos, whilst also having a deeper meaning for charity, all values which the Gaga star image wishes to portray.

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Her failed engagement to Christian Carino

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Her failed engagement to Christian Carino

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I have chosen to include this story, despite the engagement not going as planned. Here we see both a narrative of relationships, as well as a narrative of failure. Audiences are encouraged to feel sympathy for Gaga, as well as feeling a sense of relatability and intimacy to her experience of relationship. We have witnessed Gaga's authentic, vulnerable self, destroying any strict professional boundaries between star and audience.

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Lady Gaga and her partner Christian Carino are engaged. The pop megastar-turned-actress revealed the news at a Women in Hollywood celebration at the Four Seasons, Los Angeles, when she thanked "my fiancé Christian" during her honouree speech.
Read more: Meet The Duo Who Dress Lady Gaga
Though Gaga and Carino, who is a talent agent, have kept their relationship away from the spotlight since they began dating in early 2017, the performer has previously hinted that he is an integral support mechanism for her.

"The best part about being in love with someone is having them there to catch you if you fall," Gaga told press during the New York stop of her Joanne world tour, and Carino was pictured embracing his partner before her Super Bowl halftime performance in 2017.
Read more: A Star Is Born: Everything You Need To Know
Her speech at the annual recognition of female talent also touched upon the critical acclaim she has achieved in the Bradley Cooper-directed biopic, A Star is Born. "Never within my wildest dreams would I think my life would become what it has," Gaga told the audience, before touching on why she had decided to wear Marc Jacobs tailoring to the event. "As a sexual assault survivor by someone in the entertainment industry, as a woman who is still not brave enough to say his name, as a woman who lives with chronic pain, as a woman who was conditioned at a very young age to listen to what men told me to do, I decided today I wanted to take the power back. Today I wear the pants."
Read more: Style File - Lady Gaga

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Lady Gaga Confirms Engagement To Christian Carino

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The pop megastar-turned-actress revealed the news at a Women in Hollywood celebration at the Four Seasons, Los Angeles, when she thanked "my fiancé Christian" during her honouree speech

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Gaga is renown for her outrageous fashion looks. Whether that be to showcase designers, as an attention seeking fame device, or even to generate buzz as a powerful PR statement. Some of Gaga's fashion choices remain a mystery to all; here are some looks which display Gaga as a daring, risktaker when it comes to fashion.

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Celebrity culture has lots of crossovers to consumer culture, with many stars involving themselves within commercial tie-ins, as stardom emerges within a capitalist context in modern day society. The Lady Gaga star image can be viewed in terms of commercialisation and commodification, where audiences buy into the Gaga experience, through particular brands she endorses, from MAC to Don Perignon.

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A symbolic evolution of her star persona through fashion/appearance

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A symbolic evolution of her star persona through fashion/appearance

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Evolution over 10 years.

From statement pieces to sophistication and elegance, coinciding with her professional endeavours.

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A return to her dance music influence of 2010s, Gaga presents an electrifying album which 'Pitchfork' describes as "Stefani Germanotta’s return to all that is Lady Gaga: bizarre and theatrical and ambitious, swathed in electrodes, operating with a ga-ga-galaxy brain, delivering dance bangers for us". The persona of Gaga is presented here as entirely separate to Stefani. This is interesting to note, as after years of being present in the music industry, Germanotta has been successful in achieving a true professional star image, completely separate from her private persona. The fact that audiences can address this conflict between private and professional proves her success as the representation of Gaga is a star persona rather than a person.

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With incomparable flair, the pop diva returns to her dance-pop days with a fabulously fun and deeply personal album that is at turns bizarre, theatrical, and ambitious.

Lady Gaga has canceled Earth. She lives on planet Chromatica now. Yes, this is Stefani Germanotta's return to all that is Lady Gaga: bizarre and theatrical and ambitious, swathed in electrodes, operating with a ga-ga-galaxy brain, delivering dance bangers for us canceled Earthlings. Chromatica is her first pop-pop album since 2011; unlike the non-" Why Did You Do That?" parts of the A Star is Born soundtrack and the beige acoustica of 2016's Joanne, there's not a ballad to be found. Specifically, according to Gaga lore, "Chromatica" is some kind of far-flung pink-prism Mad Max planet where " ballads are illegal." Who doesn't love world-building?

But while Chromatica is a return to Gaga's dance-pop days, that doesn't mean quite the same thing now. It's been 12 years since her debut album The Fame, released when "EDM" was just corporate jargon and "dance" meant stompy electroclash. In 2020, a Lady Gaga dance album comes out as an unabashed revival of '90s house music. But if anyone's earned a trip to the house, it's Lady Gaga, who is among the few big pop stars today who can legitimately be called a diva. When Gaga sings, she sings out: not chill, not Idol-pretty, but unafraid to go there, whether there be throaty rasps or sotto-voice commands or feral desperation. It's why her hard-rock dalliances largely worked, and why Chromatica feels more substantial than other artists' throwaway dance turns. So much nu-house is producer-driven, its vocalists reduced to decorations if even credited; there is no risk of this with Gaga. Everything here would be unmistakably her even if self-reference didn't abound. Lead single "Stupid Love" salvages the juddering sequencer of "Do What U Want," kicks up the speed, and weaves Gaga's past lead singles around it like Maypole streamers: the oncoming-juggernaut heft of "Bad Romance," the melodic contour of "Born This Way," the conceit of "Applause."

The other line about Chromatica is that it's Gaga's most personal album. You may recall that Joanne was also called Gaga's "most personal album." That time, it was "personal" in the same way all pop stars' unplugged albums get called that: the arrangements had acoustic guitar, and the AutoTune was kept to a tasteful touch-up. Chromatica loses the guitars but certainly handles heavy subject matter: PTSD triggers, antipsychotic meds, sexual assault. In fact, most of Lady Gaga's music since The Fame has been very personal. For every shiny, poppy song like "Telephone" or "Hair," Gaga's recorded three more with wounds at the core: the personified fears of The Fame, the parts of Born This Way that are more darkwave or Warcraft than bubblegum; the bitter mess of 2013's Artpop. Themes recur: fragmented identity, soldiers to emptiness, drinking tears, dying a little when being touched. The art is often messy, the specific mess of art written from trauma. Even when Gaga dons freaky costumes or writes high-concept songs about Judas or swine, the artifice cracks. It's why her albums hold up surprisingly well. It's telling which Gaga moments have resurfaced from the early 2010s into current cultural memory: the deadpan, panting intro to " Monster," or the sludgy-gothy "Bloody Mary," which TikTok made even sludgier and gothier.

Chromatica reverses this effect. This is house music at its most shiny and immaculate, a genre made from ache and escapism, high strings and numbing throbs. But Gaga's lyrics are plainspoken, mostly free of religious metaphors and pretense; of the two high-concept songs on Chromatica, one is deliberately silly ("Babylon") and the other ("Alice") immediately yanks the metaphor back into reality: The first words are "my name isn't Alice" and the song is inhabited not with white rabbits but the more terrifying creatures inside one's mind. The emergency in "911" refers to olanzapine, a fast-acting antipsychotic that Gaga says saved her life. The track begins with a cold, stark beat, her vocals affectless and vocoded. The whole thing sounds off, and when the sweet, singsong chorus arrives, it just sounds off even more. The counterpoint never quite resolves with the melody, and the most painful lines ("Wish I laughed and kept the good friendships") are tossed off, almost missable. But these are wonderful details, ones you can dance through now, then catch later.

For all Gaga's emphasis on Chromatica being an album meant to be heard start-to-finish with no skips, the sequencing is a bit off. The string interludes, composed with Morgan Kibby ( M83, White Sea), separate the albums into three acts, each with its own filler. The climactic redemption of Ariana Grande collab "Rain On Me" comes about ten tracks too early, and "Free Woman" and "Fun Tonight" lose energy so close together. In act two, "Plastic Doll"-the basic idea of which you can guess just by reading the title-would have been too on-the-nose on The Fame. "Sour Candy," the break-the-internet collaboration with K-pop superstars BLACKPINK, is sassy enough, but on a Lady Gaga album, and particularly this album, it feels out of place. That's partly because there's no Gaga until over a minute in, partly because we've literally heard it before: "Sour Candy" is at least the fourth pop song built on a sample of Maya Jane Coles' " What They Say." Then there's the unavoidable fact that Chromatica is an album explicitly made for big communal dancefloors, released just before Pride month, a big celebratory mood, in a year when none of those things quite exist like they used to.

Chromatica's two strongest tracks are near-total opposites. Imagine an axis from bizarro transcendence to pure transcendence; "Sine From Above" is all the way at the left. Each individual part of it makes sense, kind of. Lady Gaga and Elton John? Sure; they're godfamily, after all, and he's a livelier duet partner than Tony Bennett or Bradley Cooper. Elton John with two-thirds of Swedish House Mafia? That was the idea, back in 2013. An ode to a literal sine wave, dropping decibels from the heavens? If anyone would write that, it'd be Gaga. Attacking that theme with zero-irony gusto that Eurovision would co-sign, going for it and never looking back? Chopping everything up for a drum-and-bass tangent at the end? To borrow the theater-kid saying, it's big and wrong-yet so big, it's hard to call it wrong at all.

If "Sine From Above" runs on WTF, "Enigma" runs on familiarity: Every musical and emotional beat arrives precisely on cue, as if the club had muscle memory. It's massive, it has a gravitational pull. Uncoincidentally, the chorus recalls a certain other song about being heroic lovers, just for one night. It slots right into Gaga canon: Enigma is the name of her recent Vegas residency, and the snippets of sax that crest above the choruses recall the late E Street Band member Clarence Clemons on Born This Way. And, crucially, it nails the desire of meeting someone in all its urgency. On planet Chromatica, "Enigma" is otherworldly: the atmospheres light up violet, dragon's eyes and phantoms abounding. It's the same drive that's powered dance music, from disco to house to Gaga-turning a moment heightened, more fantastic, and, even at its most strobe-lit and artificial, somehow entirely human.

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With incomparable flair, the pop diva returns to her dance-pop days with a fabulously fun and deeply personal album that is at turns bizarre, theatrical, and ambitious.

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This was an 8-hour online concert, featuring huge names in music, coming together to celebrate key workers around the world. This was all Gaga's idea, and called the event "a love letter to the world".

This displays Gaga's authenticity and genuine kindness, selflessness and thoughtfullness.

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Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney and Billie Eilish were among more than 100 artists who performed songs from their living rooms, due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The Rolling Stones even managed to play together from four separate locations.

The eight-hour show also featured real-life stories from those on the front line of the fight against Covid-19.

The event raised almost $128m (£102m), with proceeds going towards vaccine development and local and regional charities, organisers Global Citizen said.

Lady Gaga, who curated the line-up, called the event "a love letter to the world".

Dedicating the show to first responders and medical staff, she said the participating musicians all wanted "to give back a little bit of the kindness that you've given us".

She went on to play an upbeat version of Charlie Chaplin's Smile, adding: "We want to get to the other side of this pandemic and we know you do too."

Paul McCartney joined the programme shortly after, calling health-care workers "the real heroes" of the crisis and remembering his mother Mary, who was a nurse during the Second World War.

Titled One World: Together At Home, the concert was organised by the Global Citizen movement and the World Health Organization (WHO).

It began with a montage of people under lockdown applauding the efforts of healthcare workers around the world - from France, Spain, the UK, the US and elsewhere.

"To all of our frontline healthcare workers, we are with you. Thank you for being there for us," read an on-screen caption.

Proceeds generated from the concert will go to the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the WHO, but Lady Gaga made clear the show was not a fundraising telethon and would focus on entertainment and messages of solidarity.

First to perform was US singer songwriter Andra Day, who sang the ballad Rise Up from her apartment, setting the tone for the rest of the evening.

One Direction star Niall Horan followed shortly afterwards singing Black and White with an acoustic guitar from his living room and former bandmate Liam Payne appeared with the song Midnight.

"It's a pretty dark time for us all right now... and I feel we're all being brought a lot closer together by this solidarity," he said.

Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci of The Killers performed their hit Mr Brightside, while US singer Adam Lambert gave a rendition of the Tears for Fears song Mad World - which he first performed as an X Factor contestant in 2009.

John Legend teamed up with Sam Smith to cover Ben E King's Stand By Me, while Billie Eilish played a soulful version of Bobby Hebb's Sunny.

"I love this song," said the star. "It's always warmed my heart and made me feel good, and I wanted to make you guys feel good, too."

The Rolling Stones also delivered a spirited version You Can't Always Get What You Want - despite drummer Charlie Watts being reduced to banging on flight cases and the arm of a sofa, in the absence of his drum kit.

British singer Rita Ora urged viewers to stay safe and follow WHO recommendations, before singing I Will Never Let You Down.

Annie Lennox, meanwhile, appeared to address President Donald Trump's threat to pull funding from the WHO earlier this week.

"In this unprecedented moment in history we have a collective responsibility to make sure that global health systems are strong enough to identify and prevent future pandemics before they happen again," said the singer, although she didn't mention President Trump by name.

Ellie Goulding and Christine + The Queens also addressed the mental health issues arising from the coronavirus lockdown, urging viewers to reach out to friends if they were feeling low.

"I know it's hard," said Christine, whose real name is Heloise Letissier, "and don't hesitate to reach out to people virtually if you feel down."

The concert was split into two parts, with a six-hour "pre-show" streamed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube; followed by the main two-hour broadcast, which was shown simultaneously by all three of the main US TV networks.

Chat show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon hosted that portion of the show, during which Fallon teamed up with hip-hop group The Roots and dozens of healthcare workers to perform a coronavirus-themed version of the 80s hit Safety Dance.

Other performers included Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, Burna Boy, Luis Fonsi, Hozier and Stevie Wonder - who played a cover of Bill Withers' song Lean On Me.

Taylor Swift also gave an emotional performance of her ballad Soon You'll Get Better, sat against the pastel-coloured floral backdrop of the piano room in her house.

Originally written as a memoir of Swift's grief over her mother's cancer diagnosis, the lyrics about hospital waiting rooms and desperate prayers took on an added resonance in the context of the pandemic.

The show closed with Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocelli and John Legend collaborating on a version of The Prayer - originally written for the 1998 film Quest For Camelot - whose lyrics seek a way out of the darkness.

" When we lose our way / Lead us to the place / Guide us with your grace / To a place where we'll be safe."

In the UK, BBC One will screen excerpts of the concert at 19:15-21:15 BST on Sunday, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, Dermot O'Leary and Clara Amfo.

They will also introduce extra performances from British artists like Little Mix, Sir Tom Jones and Rag 'N' Bone Man, and stories from frontline workers in the UK. Additional footage from the main concert will also be available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days.

Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

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Coronavirus: Stars take part in One World: Together At Home concert

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Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones all play live at home.

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Lady Gaga Pioneered Online Fandom Culture As We Know It

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Lady Gaga Pioneered Online Fandom Culture As We Know It

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The Little Monsters Fandom Culture resembled an us and them narrative, creating an in-groupness and safe space/community for fans to be themselves. The group even had monster claw hand symbol to unite them.

"Little Monsters were cultivated in a way we hadn't seen before."

"She would talk about feeling like an outsider, sharing personal stories and preaching about tolerance and the importance of equality, consistently vocalising a system of beliefs that she stood for. And so, the Little Monsters had both a name, an ideology and a universal symbol to unite them"

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Lady Gaga Pioneered Online Fandom Culture As We Know It

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Today we have Beliebers, Swifties and Directioners. But the Little Monsters were cultivated in a way we hadn’t seen before.

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Gaga expands her star image by diversifying into the world of acting. Audiences are presented with a new portrayal of Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga: the actress is completely different from Lady Gaga: the pop star. Viewers take Gaga more seriously in these film roles, seeing a new side to the singer's talent.

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The Ultimate Lady Gaga Fansite Since 2010!

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"I want for people in the universe, my fans and otherwise, to essentially use me as an escape,” she says. “I am the jester to the kingdom. I am the route out. I am the excuse to explore your identity. To be exactly who you are and to feel unafraid. To not judge yourself, to not hate yourself."

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On the eve of the release of **Lady Gaga'**s groundbreaking new album, Born This Way, Jonathan Van Meter goes on tour with the global phenom-and discovers a remarkably poised star at the top of her game.

How appropriate-how accurate!-her name is. It is more of a title, really, one she bestowed upon herself mere moments before she became so insanely famous. The Gaga half makes immediate, intuitive sense, an utterance that sounds like an infant's first word but is, in fact, French and means, essentially, to be utterly enthralled by something-excited to the point of being touched by madness. (That it describes both the pop star and her uniquely obsessed fans makes it even more perfect.) But it is the Lady part of her name that has gone underexplored.

Put aside for a moment that she often appears in public with no pants on, or that she performs part of her show covered in blood, or that she screams like Sam Kinison onstage, or that she says the F-word with metronomic consistency. In person, she is unfailingly polite and surprisingly dignified. She speaks in the clipped, proper diction that is often mistaken for a Madonna-like pretension but is in fact born of twelve years of attending Convent of the Sacred Heart, the oldest private girls' school in Manhattan, where Gloria Vanderbilt matriculated, an institution known for turning out self-possessed young ladies who speak perfect French and have the vocabularies of William F. Buckley, Jr. Indeed, what surprises me most during the time I spend embedded with the pop star-inside the giant plastic bubble, so to speak-while she is on tour in London and Paris at the end of December is how effortlessly she switches back and forth between "lady" and "gaga."

It is a few hours before the start of the Monster Ball, the last of five sold-out shows at London's O2 arena, and I am sitting in an empty lounge backstage, waiting for Gaga to arrive. The room-the contents of which travel with the tour (28 trucks and fourteen buses; 140 people) from city to city-is outfitted like a VIP area in a nightclub: low black leather sectionals, silver floor lamps, a stocked bar, a huge stereo system, and little black cocktail tables set with bowls of miniature candy bars. She is an hour late. Suddenly the curtains part and Lady Gaga makes her entrance, mincing into the room holding a porcelain teacup and saucer in one hand and a wineglass for me in the other. (Like fainting on command or dropping a glove, the long-lost art of making an entrance, which Gaga seems to have single-handedly revived, is a remarkably effective way to shift the conversation.) "I don't like the idea of you having to drink wine out of a plastic cup," she says as she makes her way toward me, one tiny step at a time. She proffers her powdered cheeks for a kiss-kiss as a bottle of Sancerre is opened, which she insists on serving to me herself. "Pouring your own wine is bad luck," she says.
Click here for a slideshow of Lady Gaga's best dressed moments.

She is still in her day look: a slinky black-and-white striped dress-a gown, really-with a four-foot train and shoes that-do I even need mention?-make her feet look as if they are screwed on backward. The heels bring her nearly up to my height of six feet. (She is five feet one.) She has a Bride of Frankenstein updo, with a brooch perched on top. Gaga glances down at the bowl of candy on the coffee table in front of us, shoots me a look over the top of her granny glasses, and deadpans, "What, the Mars bars aren't doing it for you?" I have eaten three of them, I tell her, and she apologizes profusely for making me wait. She then asks an assistant to bring us a proper spread, which arrives moments later and consists of enough filet mignon to feed twelve people.

Lady Gaga may be behaving as if she were a member of Marie Antoinette's coterie-the powdered wig, the binding costume, the impeccable courtliness-but it's a far cry from what I witnessed the night before. After catching her performance, I was ushered backstage to her dressing room and found a scene that seemed entirely unhinged. Gaga herself looked like a lunatic: Barefoot, still covered in fake blood, mascara running down her face, she was careening around the room in a robe made of red feathers like a cross between Alice Cooper and Big Bird. There were dancers running in and out, mixing and spilling drinks, and a peanut gallery of strangely bedazzled gay men sitting on the sofas singing "Adelaide's Lament," from Guys and Dolls, which Gaga joined in on when she wasn't bouncing off the walls.

Gaga stumbled up to me to say hello and then introduced me to the guy she was hanging all over: a tall, boyishly cute heavy metal-looking dude with a mullet, wearing a sleeveless black leather vest. "This is Luc," she said proudly. "He's my boyfriend." He looked down at her for a moment, and a knowing grin crossed his face. "OK, Bette Midler," he said. Moments later I was ushered out of the room by Wendi Morris, Gaga's road manager-in an effort, it seemed to me, to protect Gaga from herself. As I was walking through the curtains I looked back, and Gaga was in Luc's lap. "Jonathan, wait," she whined like a teenage girl in need of attention. "Don't you want to stay and ask me some questions?" Obvious to everyone but herself: not the time for an interview.

What a difference a day makes. Back in the arena not 24 hours later, she is serene, sober, and sipping tea out of her fancy cup. What did you do today? I ask, and the answer is probably not what her millions of adoring fans would expect. "I stayed in bed all day," she says. "I do this very strange thing with my foot when I am feeling lonely. I rub my left foot with the right foot. Is that weird?"

No, I tell her. It's called self-soothing. A lot of people do it.

"OK, then. So I soothed all day." She pauses for a moment. "In this hair. Because I actually wore this hairpiece out last night and then I fell asleep in it."

And then you just got up and went about your day?

"Well, no," she says, batting her eyelashes. "She had to be fluffed up first."

Gaga can be forgiven for being wiped out. She has been on tour for three years without a real break, and on the road with the Monster Ball since February 2009. "Let's call a spade a spade here," she says. "I am really fucking tired. I am at that last mile of the marathon when your fingers and your toes are numb and you can't feel your body, and I am just going on adrenaline. But in the overarching objective of my life, I am really only at mile two. I try to keep that in mind."

If you have not seen Lady Gaga live, you do not know from Lady Gaga. In an arena, her music, which has often been dismissed as run-of-the-mill Euro-pop-somehow not edgy or deep enough-takes flight. It is as if each song were written for the express purpose of being belted-roared-in front of 20,000 people on an extravagant stage set with ten dancers taking up the rear. She manages to go from insane, over-the-top rock opera to syncopated dance routine to intimate, boozy piano ballad and then back again, through thirteen costume changes, without ever losing her total command of the stage. The fact that she has a huge voice, plays the piano and the stand-up bass, and wrote every lyric and melody herself adds to the sense that you are in the presence of a true artist who has only just begun to show what she's made of.

Of course she's comfortable onstage. She has been playing the piano since she was four and by eleven was performing in big recitals. As she puts it, "I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece." Still showing no false modesty, Lady Gaga says of herself now, "Speaking purely from a musical standpoint, I think I am a great performer. I am a talented entertainer. I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry. I consider myself to be one of the greatest songwriters. I wouldn't say that I am one of the greatest dancers, but I am really quite good at what I do." Big words from someone who's only been around for three years. "I think it's OK to be confident in yourself," she says.

Her fans couldn't agree more. They hang on her every word, scream when she screams, and dance throughout the entire two-hour-long extravaganza. At one show, I stood in the wings and watched as at least a dozen women were pulled out of the crush in front of the barricades and taken away on stretchers because they were overcome and near collapse.

It is no secret that Lady Gaga has an especially intense relationship with her fans, whom she refers to as her "little monsters." She has said more than once, "I see myself in them." Why is that? "I was this really bad, rebellious misfit of a person-I still am-sneaking out, going to clubs, drugs, alcohol, older men, younger men. You imagine it, I did it. I was just a bad kid. And I look at them, and every show there's a little more eyeliner, a little more freedom, and a little more 'I don't give a fuck about the bullies at my school.' For some reason, the fans didn't become more Top 40. They become even more of this cult following. It's very strange and exciting."

Unlike the chilly, hyperchoreographed seduction of Madonna, say, or the manufactured pop of Britney or Janet, Lady Gaga's performance style is raw and emotional. "I am quite literally chest open, exposed, open-heart surgery every night on that stage, bleeding for my fans and my music. It's so funny when people say, 'It's amazing to see how hard you work.' We're supposed to work hard! I have the world at my fingertips. I am not going to saunter around the stage doing pelvic thrusts and lip-synching. That's not at all why I am in this. I don't feel spiritually connected to anyone in Hollywood makeup and a gown with diamond earrings on. I am just a different breed. I want to be your cool older sister who you feel really connected with, who you feel understands you and refuses to judge anything about you because she's been there."

Her relationship with her fans occasionally seems to verge on unhealthy, as if both sides were overly invested in something that in the end is impossible. I bring up a YouTube video that got a lot of attention in late November, in which Gaga is crying in an arena in Poland as she talks to the audience. "Sometimes, being onstage is like having sex with my fans," she explains. "They're the only people on the planet who in an instant can make me just lose it."

When she talks about her fans, one hears shades of messianic zeal. "I want for people in the universe, my fans and otherwise, to essentially use me as an escape," she says. "I am the jester to the kingdom. I am the route out. I am the excuse to explore your identity. To be exactly who you are and to feel unafraid. To not judge yourself, to not hate yourself. Because, as funny as it is that I am on the cover of Vogue-and no one is laughing harder than I am-I was the girl in school who was most likely to walk down the hallway and get called a slut or a bitch or ugly or big nose or nerd or dyke. 'Why are you in the chorus?' " (She's more Glee than Gary Glitter in some ways.)

For Gaga, the stakes are high. "Because as an artist and as a performer, the person that they look up to to create this space of freedom and escapism, I want to give my fans nothing less than the greatest album of the decade. I don't want to give them something trendy. I want to give them the future."

Not everyone gets Gaga, of course, and no one is more aware of that fact than the singer herself. As she puts it, "What I do for a living is not a cheese sandwich. It's not like, either good or bad. It's much more complicated than that."

What no one can deny is her uncanny ability to mine decades of avant-garde and pop-culture history and twine them together in a way that feels like the future. She is a human synthesizer, a style aggregator, the perfect Wiki-Google-
YouTube-era pop star. Elton John calls her "the most adventurous and talented star of our age."

Gaga herself is very open about her influences. "It's not a secret that I have been inspired by tons of people," she says, "David Bowie and Prince being the most paramount in terms of live performance." She also seems to have made peace with the fact that she is compared to-or, less charitably, accused of ripping off-nearly every artist of the last 50 years. "I could go on and on about all of the people I have been compared to-from Madonna to Grace Jones to Debbie Harry to Elton John to Marilyn Manson to Yoko Ono-but at a certain point you have to realize that what they are saying is that I am cut from the cloth of performer, that I am like all of those people in spirit." She takes a bite of filet mignon and says with her mouth full, "She was born this way."

Lady Gaga's new album, Born This Way, does not come out until May, but the first single, of the same name, is, by the time you are reading this, no doubt blaring from the radio. I first hear the song when Gaga, iPod in hand, gets up from the sectional where we have been sitting, walks over to the stereo, plugs it in, and then looks at me and says, "Are you ready? I don't think you're ready." She turns it up to eleven. The song at first sounds suspiciously like a Madonna tune and then switches into something that feels a bit like a Bronski Beat hit and then finally transforms into its own thing: a Gaga original. Clearly an homage to the obscure underground disco record "I Was Born This Way"; it is an unbelievably great dance song, destined to be the anthem of every gay-pride event for the next 100 years.

She tells me that Elton John pronounced it the "gayest song" he had ever heard. "I wrote it in ten fucking minutes," she says, "and it is a completely magical message song. And after I wrote it, the gates just opened, and the songs kept coming. It was like an immaculate conception." She plays a few more songs and mentions a few others-with tantalizing titles like "Hair," "Bad Kids," and "Government Hooker."

The second single to be released is called "Judas" and is, typically, a mash-up: The melody sounds like it was written for the Ronettes, but it is set to a sledgehammering dance beat and is about falling in love with backstabbing men of the biblical variety. Another song, "Americano," which she describes as like "a big mariachi techno-house record, where I am singing about immigration law and gay marriage and all sorts of things that have to do with disenfranchised communities in America," has a resounding Piafesque chorus. Turns out it was intentional. "It sounds like a pop record, but when I sing it, I see Edith Piaf in a spotlight with an old microphone." (Piaf is an apt reference-they both evince a similar brand of heroic vulnerability.) But, she says, "there are some very rock-'n'-roll moments on the album, too: There's a Bruce Springsteen vibe, there's a Guns N' Roses moment. It's the anthemic nature of the melodies and the choruses." She feels it's different from-and better than-anything she's done before. "It is much more vocally up to par with what I've always been capable of. It's more electronic, but I have married a very theatrical vocal to it. It's like a giant musical-opus theater piece."

Troy Carter, Lady Gaga's manager, tells me that she recorded the entire album-all seventeen songs-on the road over the last year and a half, "which is not the ideal situation for most artists," he says. "But for her it was great because she was able to tap into the emotions inside of those arenas. We would have a conversation backstage about something, and the next day she'd play me a song relating to the conversation that we just had! Watching the creative process with her is incredible."

Carter's partner, Vincent Herbert, whom Gaga credits with discovering her in 2007 on Myspace, has worked as a producer with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. "She made songs that are going to touch people," he says. "The song 'Born This Way' just takes your breath away. It's like everybody from three to 103 can relate to that song. I think she made the Thriller of the twenty-first century."

Gaga's musical tastes are all over the map, which partly explains why she feels so comfortable in London. "Yes," she says, "I have a very broad taste in music, and the English don't differentiate the rock star from the pop star. It's all the same thing." But there is more to it. American music critics, for example, insist on defining her with dizzying numbers of pop-music references, but the fashion world sees something more precise: the influence of a very specific tribe of English eccentrics-Leigh Bowery, Isabella Blow, et al. "The fashion community in general got me much earlier than everyone else," she says. "But actually, I felt truly embraced by this London cultural movement, that McQueen, Isabella, Daphne Guinness wing of the English crowd. I remember when I first started doing photo shoots, people would say, 'My God, you look so much like Isabella Blow, it scares me.' And McQueen used to say, 'Oh, my God, your boobs!' He actually grabbed both of them and said, 'Even your boobs are like hers!' "

Like those style icons, Gaga demonstrates a commitment to outrageous self-presentation that makes every crazy costume worn by Elton or Cher or Madonna look like child's play. (As Karl Lagerfeld once told me, "I hate average, and she is anything but average.") But her determination to outdo them all, and herself, cuts both ways: She has been venerated and vilified for her fashion stunts. Some of her looks have been truly inspired (the red latex Elizabethan gown with sparkly red hearts covering her eyes to meet the queen), delightfully startling (the lace dress that crawled right across her face), downright silly (the Kermit cape), or simply mystifying (the meat dress). She clearly wants and expects a reaction. When she talks about her makeup for the "Born This Way" video, she says, "The whole world is going to hate it in the best kind of way."

Picked up for a M.A.C. Cosmetics campaign early on in her career, Gaga has always worked both within and outside the fashion establishment, collaborating on the one hand with designers like Lagerfeld and Armani and Prada, and on the other with artists like Terence Koh and unknown up-and-comers. "I pay for a lot of fashion myself because I want to support young designers," she says. All of her looks are filtered through the stylist Nicola Formichetti, who, along with the rest of her creative team, makes up the Haus of Gaga. Because Formichetti, who was recently appointed the creative director of Thierry Mugler, is in the midst of planning his first show for the house, I ask Gaga about it. "Our relationship does have some influence on the show, but I don't want to take any credit for it. Nicola is fashion. He's the most remarkable man."

At the end of the day, the way she dresses is part of the entire performance-art aspect of her life. "It's not about a choice," she says. "It's about a lifestyle that I live and breathe." Does she sometimes feel misunderstood? At first she says no but then retracts it. "Well, yes, actually," she says. "There is this assumption that women in music and pop culture are supposed to act a certain way, and because I'm just sort of middle fingers up, a-blazing, doing what my artistic vision tells me to do, that is what is misunderstood. People are like, 'She dresses this way for attention.' Or like, 'Ugh, the meat dress.' " She rolls her eyes. "People just want to figure it out or explain it. The truth is, the mystery and the magic is my art. That is what I am good at. You are fascinated with precisely the thing that you are trying to analyze and undo."

I am sitting in a vast suite in a very swank hotel in Place Vendôme in Paris, once again waiting for Gaga to make an entrance. Her road manager, Wendi Morris, is pacing around talking on her cell phone to Troy Carter. "I am not going to ask her that," she says. "Not now." Pause. "If you pay to have my head reattached to my body, I will ask her." She laughs. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Gaga is not always delightful. She is at the center of a complex multimillion-dollar enterprise that does not run smoothly at all times. Indeed, as an epic snowstorm was shutting down half of Europe, Gaga and her trucks and buses were trying to make their way to Paris. When the caravan got through the Channel Tunnel, the drivers were told that they would have to idle at a way station until the roads were passable. A couple of them decided to shove right on through anyway and were promptly pulled over, the drivers arrested. The quest to free the drivers-and, more important, the Monster Ball equipment they were ferrying-in time for the show to go on on Sunday night went all the way up to President Sarkozy. The answer came back: No. The Monster Ball would have to be canceled. Gaga, Morris tells me, was livid.

The door to the suite opens, and Gaga appears in a long-sleeved, high-neck nude-verging-on-lavender dress with a train, and a décolletage encrusted with what she describes as "pinky-pearly scales." There is a diamond-shaped cutout at the cleavage, and her breasts-nipples covered with strips of white tape-occasionally make a surprise appearance. "You don't even want to know what happened yesterday," she says. "The wrath. It wasn't cute. It's not something I would want anyone to see."

She seems a little on edge still, a bit cranky. "This is boring," she says. "Let's go get something to eat." The security team is activated; the car is brought around. "I want to go out the front door," she says to her security guys. "Say hello to the fans." Are you sure? one of them asks. "Yeah, because they have been waiting. I think it's good for them to know that I care." She holds out her hand, which is nearly covered by a serpentine diamond ring. "I am going through an Elizabeth Taylor moment. Don't judge me. They are all certified non-conflict diamonds."

We head through the lobby, and I can see a barely contained mob of fans through the windows. "Awwww, see?" she says, as she approaches the entrance. "How could you go out the back when you have that waiting out front?" The doors swing open, and Gaga, surrounded by security, plunges in. "Ga_ga_! Ga_ga_! Ga_ga_!" A teenage boy pushes to the front. "I am from Milano! Please! Please! Please!" They are all holding out a scrap of something to be signed or angling to get a picture. The crowd surges forward. A security guy yells, "One at a time! Take it easy!" There are girls with tears streaming down their faces. I almost get knocked over. Morris pulls me out of the maw and shoves me into the van, and the doors close behind us. But the fans do not give up. They are banging on the windows, pressing their faces against the glass. "They are so sweet," Gaga says. Not exactly the word I would have chosen.

We pull away from the mob and head down the street, about a dozen paparazzi on motorcycles trailing close behind. "I don't know if you knew this," she says, "but the other night, in London, I had food poisoning. I was vomiting backstage during the changes." I had no idea, I say. "Nobody knew," she says. "I just Jedi mind-tricked my body. You will not vomit onstage. Because I was also thinking, If I do, they are going to think I'm drunk. And I don't want them to think I am human, let alone drunk. I certainly wouldn't want them to think I had something so ordinary as food poisoning." She laughs.

We make our way to Chez André, and Gaga orders, in perfect French, escargot, steak tartare, and chicken. She likes her protein, this pop star. Moments earlier, when we walked into the restaurant, every person in the room stopped talking and stared, forks suspended in midair. Now, seated in a corner by the window, with a curtain that comes up right to the top of her beehive, I can see people outside on the street jumping up and down, trying to catch a glimpse. Let's not forget that her first album is titled The Fame and the second The Fame Monster. "There is the fame monster, as you can see," she says, gesturing outside, "but it also comes from within. It will only change you and affect you if you allow it to. You have to reject all the evils of it and try to turn all the positive things that you can use about fame into great things. Like Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Gaga used her visibility, her unusual connection with her fans, and her social-media prowess to agitate for the repeal of the law, tweeting senators, making protest videos, and speaking at rallies. "That's me turning my fame into something that is positive and makes me feel good about my life."

I wonder out loud how her parents, Joe and Cynthia Germanotta, have handled all of this. "It was hard in the beginning, but we have wrestled fame to the ground together," she says. Gaga's father, who was very involved in her career early on, had heart surgery a few years ago. "I obsess about his health," she says. "I'm very Italian. I call him every day. I ask my mother if he's been smoking. They are in their 50s, and they still live in the same apartment on the Upper West Side. Nothing has changed since I have become a star. I am a real family girl. When it comes to love and loyalty, I am very old-fashioned. And I am quite down-to-earth for such an eccentric person."

One of the most peculiar things about Gaga is that for all the ways she's transformed the pop landscape, she herself romanticizes her early days as aspiring musician Stefani Germanotta: "It was grassroots, downtown New York, blood, sweat, and tears, dancing, music, whiskey, pummeling the streets, playing every venue I could get my hands on. It was the hustle and the grind and the traffic of New York that propelled me to where I am today. I don't in any way associate my past with anything other than the hunger and the starvation for success that I still feel. It was the most beautiful time in my life. And funnily enough, I still live in the same apartment, hang out with the same friends, drink at the same bars, and I dance in the same studios with the same dancers. Really, nothing has changed." (Is it a coincidence that astronomically successful 20-somethings Gaga and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have rejected much of the flash and bling of the boom years, live in relatively modest accommodations, and are very close to their families-or is there a new paradigm for dominators of the Zeitgeist?)

There are an awful lot of people trying to get in on Gaga's creation myth. A mean-spirited book came out in September; an ex-lover and songwriting partner filed a $30 million lawsuit against her (later dismissed); and every bartender she ever kissed on the Lower East Side has a story. When I ask her about her life before she was discovered and signed to Interscope Records, she says, "My ride through the industry was an interesting one because people loved me but there was a very big raised eyebrow about me. I mean, a big one. So people were kind of like, well, I'm involved but not really. And as soon as I took off, it was like, I invented her, I made her, I wrote the music. When, in reality, I am completely self-invented."

We finish lunch and head back through the scrum of paparazzi and into the car for the drive to the arena. She has a show tonight and another tomorrow, the makeup show for the cancellation the night before. Despite the fact that it is just two nights before Christmas Eve, she cannot bear to leave Paris without giving her fans what they have waited so long for. Her cell phone rings. "Hi, Mom! . . . Well, I'm, you know, I'm tired, Mommy. . . . Luc's just kind of being a baby. . . . Were you able to find his earring? . . . OK, thanks, Mommy. . . . No, I'm OK. . . . I love you. . . . All right. . . . I love you." She hangs up and falls silent. I check my BlackBerry, and when I look up, she is sound asleep. A few miles later, her eyes open, and I tease her. "My friends tell me that I recharge like a robot," she says. "Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of Interscope, actually laughs at me: Whenever I have ridden on a plane with him I have fallen asleep, and apparently I don't move. I sit in my clothes, perfectly still, head straight up, and I just sleep. And then I open my eyes and he's like, 'You scare me the way you sleep.' "

It's so perfect, I say, for someone who likes to be. . . .

"Poised? As much as possible?"

Back in New York a week later, I call Iovine, and when he gets on the phone he just starts laughing. "Isn't she amazing?" he says. "Did she take you for a ride? Isn't that a great train to be on, being on tour with her?" And then he says this: "Artists like her are very rare. Artists that have that many facets of their career in line and can do that many things. She can write like Carole King, produce, sing like that, work-work-work like that. She gets her point of view across; she has the fashion, the performance-the entire vision. It's very, very rare." What does the future hold for Lady Gaga? "Only she can imagine it," he says. "I don't have that good of an imagination like she does. But she's the real thing. She will go as long as she wants to or physically can. Her talent will take her as far as she wants to take it. Most artists of this caliber, if they can stay healthy, there's no limitation. None."

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On the eve of the release of **Lady Gaga'**s groundbreaking new album, Born This Way, Jonathan Van Meter goes on tour with the global phenom-and discovers a remarkably poised star at the top of her game.

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Gaga launched her own perfume, "The Fame". It allows audiences to buy into the Gaga commodity/experience, feeling closer to Lady Gaga through marketable commodities which resemble the star image: mystery, darkness and poison.

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HX is a New York based magazine created in 1991.

August 8, 2008 [ ]

"Just Dance" singer Lady Gaga gives back to the gays

By Brandon Voss

Not quite sure what to make of electro-pop diva Lady Gaga's theatrical fashion-forward fierceness? Follow the advice of her international hit single: "Just dance. It'll be okay." Still hot off a history-making performance on the Miss Universe Pageant in Vietnam and with her glittery debut album The Fame out in October, the 22-year-old NYC native discusses booze, bisexuality and even Britney before she makes all the boys gag at Daniel Nardicio's birthday celebration on Friday, August 8, at The Ice Palace in Cherry Grove.

HX: Did you always know that the gays were going to go gaga over your music?
Lady Gaga: I have a lot of gay friends, so it was more like, I wonder if my friends will like it. I'm a dancer and grew up in a theater community in New York, so I feel like my music is a product of that environment. I find something really beautiful about the spirit of the gay community. I feel a part of it. I was the girl in high school who never really had a lot of popular friends, so I found my place with my gay friends in acting school and dance class. It's a really inspiring community, and I feel very privileged to be around it.

Who's your best gay friend?
I couldn't say-I have too many! I would upset a lot of people.

You surely earned even more gay fans with the recent announcement that you wrote a track for Britney's upcoming album. Was that a dream come true?
Yeah. I was working with Rodney Jerkins on Pussycat Dolls, and we wrote this song-I almost slipped and told you the name. Thank God I caught myself; I respect her a lot, so I was to give her control over that. When we were done with the song, I was like, "Oh, I want to sing it," but my album was already closed. It never even crossed my mind that she was doing a new record. Then Rodney played it for [Britney's manager] Larry Rudolph, who was in the studio. Rodney called me later and was like, "Britney's people are freaking out about this song." Ultimately, she makes the decisions, so when I found out that she loved it and was going to record it, it was amazing. I actually heard it yesterday with her on it for the first time, and I really had chills.

Shouldn't you start being more selfish with hits that you write?
My record is really great, and it has a lot of hits on there that I can run with for a while. I'm not an egomaniac; I don't need to sing every great song that I write. If anything, it's more of an achievement for me as a writer to get to write for a superstar.

You did a mini-promo tour of the NYC gay club scene a couple of months ago. What was that experience like?
It was awesome, and it made me want to work harder. When I was at Splash, I was mad that I was performing, because I wanted to be on E, sweating my pants off in the crowd. When I play at gay clubs, it's like playing for my friends: They get it and understand what I'm trying to say, and they have a very open mind about art, pop and commercial music. When I did Miss Universe, all of the gays on my site were like, "Man, you looked so cool. We loved your outfit." But every now and then you'll see a comment that's like, "I love her, but she's a little weird." I'm always thinking to myself, Oh, they just don't know fashion. [Laughs]

Performing for years in downtown clubs, your life could've taken a darker turn. How'd you avoid temptation?
Well, I really didn't for a little while. I was for sure not focused, but I was making great work. I don't want to encourage people to do drugs for music or anything, but I did it because I wanted to understand what inspired the artistic life of the '70s and how Andy Warhol functioned. It was sort of a creative journey for myself, and at some point it just got out of hand. I was having trouble sleeping, and I would have a panic attack after one glass of wine just because my body was so afraid of substance. I was too afraid to lose everything.

Was there a night in particular that inspired "Just Dance"?
Yeah, for sure. If you've ever been so high that it's, like, scary, the only way you can deal with it is not deal with it, so you just kind of dance through the intoxication. I wrote the song the day after I had just flew in from New York to L.A., so I was taken very quickly out of my party lifestyle. I wrote it instantly-like it flew out of my body. I'd been working on this album for two-and-a-half years, and I was at a crossroads with my songwriting. I was trying to be so cool with my own music, but I would get better responses when I would write for other artists because I was not trying to be cool. So when I did "Just Dance," that was my way of being like, "just fuckin' write a good song. Stop worrying about what's going to fly in the underground. Worry about writing a great record." Actually, that record ended up being more powerful than any of the songs that I racked my brain writing, and after that, it was an influx of record after record. It was almost like a switch went off in my brain, and I figured out how to write a good pop song.

Are you really as boy-crazy as your lyrics suggest?
Yeah. Well, I'm girl-crazy too. I really depends on where I am. I love men, I love women and I love sex, but I'm actually pretty introverted right now because I'm so enveloped in my work, and it's hard to let anybody near that. People fuck with your energy, and it's very hard to find people that are supportive of your art and don't want to take time away from it. A lot of times, boyfriends and girlfriends get jealous and want all your attention, and I really don't have time for that.

Do you consider yourself bisexual?
Sure. I mean, I don't really consider sexual orientation in general. It's like, people are born the way they are.

If a drag queen wanted to do Lady Gaga, what would be your best advice?
If you're wearing a blonde wig or extensions, you have to wash it with purple shampoo. Because I don't have any yellow in my hair and I'm very insane about that.

What's been your most mind-blowing appearance thus far? Probably Gay Pride in San Francisco. To be asked to play the main stage and close the whole weekend was-I don't know. I got very choked up on stage. Right before I did "Just Dance," I said, "I just want to tell all of you that being here makes me so fucking proud." Everybody looked very emotional. It was kind of this beautiful moment, because I can put out a lot of records, write for other people, sell and get famous, but it's not the same as really connecting with and inspiring a community of people. If I can be that for anyone, especially the gay community, that's incredible.

Photoshoot by Pieter Henket

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HX is a New York based magazine created in 1991. Photoshoot by Pieter Henket

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A continuing theme with regard to her jazz persona.

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The iconic crooner's recent Alzheimer's diagnosis gives this album an added poignancy

There are moving May-December relationships and then there is the pairing of paisans that is 95(!)-year old croon-king Tony Bennett with 35-year old pop powerhouse Lady Gaga, a superhero team-up that has produced another album of rock-solid takes on the American songbook.

Their 2014 standards collection Here, the duo take on classics by Cole Porter, reigning GOAT of the Tin Pan Alley poets. Bennett's recent Alzheimer's diagnosis gives the collection a poignancy that was absent from Cheek to Cheek was a tenderhearted hit that allowed Bennet to break his own record for oldest act with a number one album and enabled Gaga to apply her seemingly boundless theater-kid enthusiasm to songs generations of theater kids have long worshipped. Cheek to Cheek. Love For Sale has been billed as their final collaboration.

Over traditional arrangements suitable for both supper club and Radio City, Bennett sings such standards as "I Get a Kick Out of You" (the first single), the title track and "It's De-Lovely" as if he was born this way. The band mostly sticks to Big Band brassy ladled with string syrup; "Let's Do It," a Gaga solo vocal that threatens to go full New Yawk on the chorus, folds in a brief organ run, while the guitar solos on "Dream Dancing" and "Just One of those Things" give the melodies very polite pokes.

Gaga, cheeky as ever, drops in a verse about a tattoo at the end of "I've Got You Under My Skin" and almost runs away with a downright zippy opening to "Night and Day" before it resolves into swell romance.

For Gaga, who belts away with joyful verve, this album (like C heek to Cheek) points the way to a classicist (or maybe even Vegas-centered) musical future her fans probably didn't considered when they were blasting "Poker Face" out of their parents' Toyotas. As for Bennett, well, retiring from live performance at 95? He's never going to make it in this business with that attitude.

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Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett Return to the American Songbook on 'Love For Sale'

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Review: Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett's 'Love For Sale'

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"This arbitrary album is just one of several projects in which Gaga shape-shifts her image and talent. "

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7. "Cheek to Cheek" is unoriginal.

This arbitrary album is just one of several projects in which Gaga shape-shifts her image and talent.

On it, she collaborates with Tony Bennett to cover jazzy classics like Matty Malneck's "Goody, Goody" (1936) and Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" (1934).

And while the vocals and live performances of this album are flawless and rhythmically theatrical, Gaga and Bennett's renditions don't add anything of significance when compared to the original songs, making this project redundant.

"'Cheek to Cheek' sounds like a retreat; it's plenty desperate, but in a way that suggests she's merely run out of ideas for the moment and wants to cover it up with borrowed prestige," Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times said.

Jazz as a genre has also declined in popularity, so it's not surprising this album didn't gain much traction.

6. "Joanne" isn't risky enough.

On "Joanne," the EDM-centric artist forgoes pounding electro-pop for a calmer country/folk-pop sound.

The vulnerability and absence of auto-tune on this project are much appreciated, as the songstress strips down the production and showcases her vocals through her most intimate storytelling within her discography.

Tracks like "Joanne," "Million Reasons," and "Angel Down," are raw and reflective, while other songs like "Diamond Heart," "A-YO," and "Grigio Girls," are definitely catchy.

However, while the album was a bold rebrand for Gaga personally, there is nothing generally special about it.

"Joanne" just wasn't daring enough to sonically stand out in the mainstream (which was already deluged with similar pop and alternative sounds), preventing it from having a lasting impression - and possibly making it the artist's most generic work.

5. The "A Star Is Born" soundtrack is not a Gaga masterpiece.

This is another project in which Gaga strays far from her authentic self and sound.

It is a raw ballad-filled soundtrack with moving duets like "Shallow" and "I'll Never Love Again," and a few bops like "Why Did You Do That?" and "Hair Body Face."

Bradley Cooper and Mark Ronson also come through with enormous talent in vocals and production, respectively.

Gaga further reinforces Ally's character and sound in the film with her, - as The Guardian's Ben Beaumont-Thomas calls it - "Aloe Blacc-style neo-Stax soul," along with impressively executed high-pitched melodies.

The soundtrack by no means lacks soul or quality; it just lacks the risque fanfare Gaga is so very well known and praised for. Seeing as it's not truly a Gaga album, it falls behind her other projects in this ranking.

4. "Artpop" is Gaga in full form.

As divisive as her third studio album is, it is perhaps her most Gaga project yet, in that it's her most ambitious and uncaged.

The project chaotically experiments with tech, art, pop, and sex in its attempt to be what The Atlantic dubbed "an attention-freak's manifesto," making it mostly overwhelming and hard to discern upon first listen.

But while there are a few overwrought, dubstep-y tracks (like "G.U.Y" and "Donatella"), the overall experience is a genuinely exhilarating one, filled with wildly infectious, dance-floor-worthy beats across songs like "Manicure," "Swine," and "Fashion!"

In the years since its release, critics have revisited and backtracked initial opinions, to analyze the album's "obvious gems" (Billboard) and declare that "Artpop" "is good, actually" (Vice).

3. "Chromatica" is a "futuristic pop utopia."

Her last studio album is her brightest, most polished pop album yet.

Insider's Callie Ahlgrim has previously described it as a "futuristic pop utopia."

"Chromatica" is an instantly mood-boosting playlist in which every single song gets your body moving - with the exception of the three interludes: "Chromatica I," "Chromatica II," and "Chromatica III."

What the interludes do though, is enhance the strategically thought-out spatial aesthetic of the fantastical project.

The album manages to sonically sugarcoat very dark personal struggles with PTSD triggers, antipsychotic meds, and sexual assault. But, as the irresistible pop anthem "Free Woman" states, this project is "her dancefloor she fought for," no matter what pain or trauma may persist.

And with iconic tracks like punchy "Stupid Love" - which according to Katherine St. Asaph of Pitchfork, is "the oncoming-juggernaut heft of 'Bad Romance' and the melodic contour of 'Born This Way'" - there is no doubt it deserves a spot in the top three.

2. "Born This Way" is memorable and anthemic.

On her second studio album, Gaga executes what she does best: Euro-disco beats and elements of chanty dark-pop.

And throughout that raucous angsty sound, is a refreshing pop-y platform bolstered by Gaga's theatrics and powered by truth and identity - which has primarily resonated with the LGBTQ community.

The title track has been dubbed a "freedom song" by Gaga herself and a song that has defined the 2010s by Billboard. Other tracks like the cheeky "Judas" serve insight into existential wars of religion (and the heart), while "Government Hooker," "Hair," and "Scheiße" serve as feminist anthems.

Making it even more eternal, the final song, "Edge Of Glory," enlists Bruce Springsteen's sax player, Clarence Clemons, for a notable solo.

1. "The Fame" is a classic.

This 2008 project boldly encompasses an edgy, gothic, Euro-dance-y sound that helped turn a world of tired generic pop into the famously campy scene it's evolved into today.

Gaga introduced herself to the industry as a forward-thinking musical (and visual) genius via hit songs like "LoveGame," "Paparazzi," and "Poker Face" - all of which propelled an entirely new wave of stan culture.

Consequence of Sound's Alex Young, said that Gaga herself has been "heralded as the savior of pop music and culture, injecting a much-needed spark into what not too long ago was a very tired industry" due to the massive success of "The Fame" and its follow-up EP, "The Fame Monster."

And with the addition of "The Fame Monster" came more alluring chart-toppers like "Bad Romance," "Alejandro," and "Telephone" - turning this era into an even-greater pop experiment with grandiose goth beats and overall excellence.

Lady Gaga Music Celebrities

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Insider listened to all seven of Lady Gaga's albums, from "The Fame" to "Chromatica," and ranked them from worst to best.

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In a review, ARTPOP is described as "an Attention-Freak's Manifesto". Despite the harsh tone, it is not necessarily a negative statement. The reviewer utilises adjectives such as "garish", "polarizing", which tells us that the star image of Gaga is one which is big, bold and "aimed traight at the center of culture can get."

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Lady Gaga’s Artpop Is an Attention-Freak’s Manifesto

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First impressions of the superstar's third album

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Lady Gaga Skypes with a Superfan - The Graham Norton Show

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"I don't even listen to her music but I just find her...i don't know mesmerizing and intriguing. She seems down to earth"

"I just love Gaga. So genuine"

"Wow, she seems so genuine...so rare to see in Celebs nowadays"

"Very few celebrities have surprised me (rather, touched me) with their genuine humaneness and humility"

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"I've always been famous its just now everybody knows about it". 

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"I've always been famous its just now everybody knows about it". 

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Gaga: "I'd rather have the biggest show on earth than the best house"

Gaga displays a persona which is incredibly dedicated to the music industry. She is not interested in the money or valuables that coincide with fame, yet she uses her popularity to give back to others. She presents a certain kind of authenticity and genuineness that can't be seen through the darkness of Gaga's songs. She puts every penny she earns back into her shows to provide fans with the best possible experience. She lives for music and she lives for her audiences, anything else is not necessary for her. fame doesnt mean money, fame means the joy to do what she loves to the best standard she can and to provide fans with a role model and inspirational symbol of freedom.

She is bold, confident and a powerful personality. Indeed, "I've always been famous its just now everybody knows about it".

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Lady Gaga Gives CNN Her Unique Recipe for Success

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In this interview, Gaga reveals to Ellen that she doesn't actually have her own home. Whilst touring, she lives her life in hotels to save all her money for her productions.

Gaga: "I'm gypsy"

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Gaga having no home is reflected in her song- 'Gypsy'

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" Gypsy" is a song written by Lady Gaga and RedOne, produced by Madeon in 2012 for ARTPOP. She revealed the song title on Fun Radio interview. The song was registered on Gaga's BMI on February 14th, 2014.

Background

Lady Gaga talked about the creation and meaning of the song in the track-by-track ARTPOP commentary on Sirius XM.

"

I started writing "Gypsy" with RedOne, and then I finished writing it with DJ White Shadow and Madeon, and myself, obviously, and we finished the production together. I did a lot of the guitar parts on this song, it was sort of my main passion on this record, was getting some really exciting acoustic parts, and my buddy Tim, he plays guitar, he's so so talented. And this song is about, you know, traveling the world, and sometimes feeling really really lonely, but being okay with being alone because I have my fans, and because, when I get to that different country everyday: they are my home, just for the day. And this record's all about falling in love, but it's also about what I think the key is to staying in love, and that's not trying to stop the other person from being on their own journey, not trying to stop them from being who they are, or trying to change them. That's really been the new success in my love life. It's been in allowing the other person to be on their journey, and you be on yours, and that you just be really happy when you're together and not try to change one another.

"

-Lady Gaga on Sirius XM

She said that her finding true love served as initial inspiration to the song.

Before performing "Gypsy" at ArtRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball on June 2nd, 2014, Lady Gaga revealed that the song was written about a guy she met in San Diego. Lady Gaga said she didn't have many friends and was very lonely at the time and this guy she met one night in San Diego introduced her to all his friends. It was something her ex would never do. He took her on the back of his motorcycle and went to Mission Beach where he told her he wanted see the world with Gaga and they made love all day. The lyrics to "Gypsy" are about their conversation they had that night.

Most likely, she was talking about Taylor Kinney. On the morning of September 8th, 2011, MTV reported that Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney were seen together " last weekend" (nearly on September 3rd- 4th, 2011) at 'The Sneak Joint' beachside bar in San Diego, CA. A witness from the bar said, "I couldn't tell it was her at first. It just looked like some hot couple making out, but then I realized it was Lady Gaga! [...] She was so sweet too. She even signed some autographs." Another eye witness said, "Her hair was a little messy. It definitely seemed like a 'morning after' situation. They are obviously totally into each other!" Also, it is known that Taylor Kinney rides a motorcycle well. Besides, bing on the Mission Beach is referenced in the lyrics of the demo version of the song " But then we, we kissed all night at his Mission Beach party". The whole story is contradicted only by the fact that Gaga and Taylor met each other for the first time on the set for the " Yoü and I" music video back in July, 2011, in Nebraska, although during the concert in 2014 she said she first met that guy in San Diego.

On French radio Hit West, Madeon recalled that on September 22nd, 2012 he had gone to see Lady Gaga at her Born This Way Ball show at Paris' Stade de France. After the performance, Gaga took Madeon to her hotel room. He played her some chords he had been working on for sometime on the piano. Gaga immediately started singing the main melody of "Gypsy", and then the main song "flowed out", leading them to write a new demo the same night. Since Madeon had brought his computer with him, he recorded the ideas developed with Gaga so he would not forget them. For MTV News, Madeon further explained that he " had never heard the original track" made with RedOne prior to that night and that he " started playing new chords and we started writing a new song based on that song. So it's kind of a nice story on [how] two different takes on the same idea made a new song." Afterwards, the song went through various changes, and more musicians were added for the final version on the album in Los Angeles. Not much is known about the first version made with RedOne, only that is was made virtually as they couldn't book studio time together.

"

Madeon was mostly in charge of that track. Some of those things when we were doing them, it was a very, very genuine team effort. So it was like you'd do something somewhere, Madeon would come in and start taking it and running with it. Me and Nick and Dino, we'd all kind of separate and work on different things at different times. It was a real squad effort.

"

-DJWS to E! Online in 2020

The line " Someday in Jakarta" refers to the cancellation of Lady Gaga's The Born This Way Ball soldout concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was supposed to take place on June 3rd, 2012, due to the inability of police to protect the visitors of the event from threats from Islamist religious groups. Lyrically, Lady Gaga hopes that one day she will be able to perform in Indonesia.

During a chat on Little Monsters site on Oct 29th, 2012, Lady Gaga revealed that there are 2 songs from ARTPOP which were inspired by Indonesian " conflict." One of them, apparently, is "Gypsy."

"

I love indonesian monsters, they inspired some songs on ARTPOP. Well, I was really inspired by the conflict we had with Indonesia. So, I wrote some songs about it but they are more metaphorical and conceptual about bringing people together. Both are dance songs: one song is a complextro masterpiece and the other is a hip-hop/j-pop/pop song. And it's not hip-hop in the way you know, it's more underground chicago gay club trap and it's very diffrent from Azealia Banks music because she's more 90's house.

"

-Lady Gaga via Little Monsters

On October 20th, 2012, Lady Gaga teased some lyrics of the song on Instagram and Little Monsters by posting a selfie and adding " I love gypsy life" in the caption.[1][2]

Lady Gaga performed "Gypsy", an acoustic six-minute-long version of the track, in its entirety for the first time for guests at an exclusive listening party at Berlin's famed Berghain club on October 24th, 2013. Before attending the event, Lady Gaga wrote on her Twitter, " 2day at AMPYA ARTPOP listening party in Germany I'll perform the world premiere of 'Gypsy' at the piano! Stream it tonight around the world!" Before singing a song she told the audience: " I wrote this song as I was travelling around the world... they say 'a Gypsy doesn't have a home.' But I do have a home. I have a home with you always."

There was a misconception about "Gypsy" being the next single after " Applause" when a photo starting spreading around the internet that said the album featured "Applause" and "Gypsy". However, on January 21, 2014, Interscope Records revealed that the song was to serve as the third single. A couple of weeks after the announcement, plans had shifted and the label settled on" G.U.Y." instead.

Performances

Dates

Location

City

Dates

Location

Channel

Dates

Location

Station

Lyrics

Sometimes a story has no end,
Sometimes I think that we could just be friends.
"Cause I'm a wandering man", he said to me,
"And what about our future plans?
Does this thing we have even makes sense?
When I got the whole world in front of me?"
So I said

I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I love gypsy life
I don't wanna be alone forever, maybe we could see the world together
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight!

Tonight!

So I just packed my baggage and
Said goodbye to family and friends
And took a road to nowhere on my own
Like Dorothy on a yellow brick
Hope my ruby shoes get us there quick
'Cause I left everyone I love at home

I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I love gypsy life
I don't wanna be alone forever, maybe we can see the world together
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight!

Tonight!

'Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm

And then he asked me, he said
"Baby! Why do we love each other?"
I said, "Honey, it's simple
It's the way that you love and treat your mother."

Thought that I would be alone forever
But I won't be tonight
I'm a man without a home, but I think
With you, I could spend my life
And you'll be my little gypsy princess
Pack your bags and we can chase the sunset
Bust the rear view and fire up the jets
'Cause it's you and me!

Baby, for life!
(If you go with me)
For life!
(See the world with me)

'Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
Russia, U.K, Paris
I'm Italian, Asian combined
Africa, India, I'm gypsy, gypsy, gypsy
I'm Latin-American
I don't speak German, but I try
Someday in Jakarta
I'm American, I'm gypsy
I'm Bangkok, Australian, Malaysia
Just Sweden, Finland, Norway
Be my home just for the day
I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy, hey

Sometimes a story has no end,
Sometimes I think that I should settle down and
We could just be friends.
"Cause I'm a wandering man", he said to me,
But then we, we kissed all night at his Mission Beach party
And I said

I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I love gypsy life
I don't wanna be alone forever, maybe we could see the world together
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight!

Tonight!

I'm packing bags and making stacks
Like a good old-time American
And I'm just trying to show my mom and dad
There's such thing as a real good man
'Cause when he talks to me, you see the man that you're talking about
In his eyes I see
When he puts his hand over my bathing suit and says to me

I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be tonight
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I love gypsy life
I don't wanna be alone forever, maybe we can see the world together
I don't wanna be alone forever, but I can be...

I can be tonight!

Tonight!

'Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm

And then he asked me, he said
"Baby! Why do we love each other?"
I said, "Honey, it's simple
It's the way that you love and treat your mother."

Thought that I would be alone forever
But I won't be tonight
I'm a man without a home, but I think
With you, I could spend my life
And you'll be my little gypsy princess
Pack your bags and we can chase the sunset
Doesn't matter if your daddy gets pissed
It's you and me!

Baby, for life!
(If you go with me)
For life!
(See the world with me)

'Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy I'm
Russia, U.K, Paris
I'm Italian, Asian combined
Africa, India, I'm gypsy, gypsy, gypsy
I'm Latin-American
I don't speak German, but I try
Someday in Jakarta
I'm American, I'm gypsy
I'm Bangkok, Australian, Malaysia
Just Sweden, Finland, Norway
Be my home just for the day
I'm a gypsy, gypsy, gypsy, hey

Trivia

The song references "Scheiße" in the line "I don't speak German but I try."

Credits

Writers

Lady Gaga, RedOne and Madeon

Producers

Madeon and Lady Gaga

Recording by

Dave Russell, Bill Malina and Benjamin 'Ben' Rice at Record Plant, Hollywood, CA

Additional recording

Bill Malina at CRC Studios, Chicago, IL
Ghazi Hourani at Record Plant, Hollywood, CA

Assistant recording

Benjamin Rice, Andrew Robertson and Daniel Zaidenstadt at Record Plant
Steve Faye at CRC Studios

Guitar

Tim Stewart

Background vocal, guitar and piano arrangement

Lady Gaga

Background vocals

Nicole Ganther, Natalie Ganther and Lyon Gray

Union contractor administration

Ivy Skoff

Mixed by

Manny Marroquin at Larrabee North Studios Universal City, CA
Madeon at Popcultur Studios, France

Assistant mixers

Chris Galland and Delhert Bowers at Larrabee Studios

Mastering

Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering, Burbank, CA

Publishing

Sony/ATV Songs LLC / House of Gaga Publishing LLC (BMI)

Sony/ATV Songs LLC / Songs of RedOne LLC (BMI)

Warner Chappell Music Publishing

References

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"Gypsy" is a song written by Lady Gaga and RedOne, produced by Madeon in 2012 for ARTPOP. She revealed the song title on Fun Radio interview. The song was registered on Gaga's BMI on February 14th, 2014. Lady Gaga talked about the creation and meaning of the song in the track-by-track ARTPOP commentary on Sirius XM.

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Magazine Archive- The Hollywood Reporter

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Magazine Archive- The Hollywood Reporter

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Gaga is described as a "happy, spiritual leader of her "little monsters".

In describing her concert, the reviewer states "just being you was a running theme" "The Monster Ball will set you free" "I want you to leave loving yourself more"

"the final catchy dance beat left fans in a state of pure Gaga"

Audiences are presented with an iconic star image, questioning if Gaga is a real person, or if the 'Gaga' experience is a symbol of acceptance and liberation, as her confidence illuminates the stage.

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Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga

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Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga

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This article discusses Gaga's success and commodification.

"Lady Gaga is a corporate media creation and a cleverly marked commodity"

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"No one was expecting the blood. No one knew what she was going to do next in those days".

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"No one was expecting the blood. No one knew what she was going to do next in those days".

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Comments are a really good way to gage how audiences respond to the construction of a star's persona. In this case, audiences respond positively, with majority using the word 'iconic'. Many found the blood strange, but Gaga found her people who enjoyed her bold, eccentric performances. The persona of 'Gaga' became a household name worldwide, as no one was expecting this performance and no one knows what she will do next...

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The comments express Gaga's star persona quite beautifully. Not only does Gaga's image appeal to her 'Little Monsters' fan base, but audiences can now experience Gaga alongisde their grandparents. This collaboration with Bennett is a clever tactic to engage wider audiences, adding more depth to the Gaga persona, as some begin to take her musical talent more seriously, rather than just an eccentric looking pop star.

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Brand endorsements are popular among celebrities in this new age of advertising. Brands which want Gaga as the face aim to share the same values associated with Gaga's image with their brand identity to maximise both attention and revenue. In a similar way, Gaga can use the respect and high regard of some designer brands to associate her star image within a higher class.

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According to CloudKicher music, Her bubble dress is a testament to her success as a fashion designer due to her willingness to express herself in ways that others may not understand, and her commitment to freedom of expression is what distinguishes her.

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Lady Gaga star image as a whole show/experience, linking back to shock-factor and desire to put on a performance.

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PR statement- the demise of women in the celebrity industry

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Shows her commitment to a particular star image in the domain of fashion, drawing attention to herself and making a name for the icon that is 'Lady Gaga'.

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Gaga "leaves little to the imagination" in this red lace number, mirroring the sexy, edgy and provocative persona displayed through the Lady Gaga star image.

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Gaga displays continuity and stability in her star image, presenting a modernised, futuristic appearance mirroring the themes of her songs at the time.

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Gaga remains true to her fashion persona as she dresses in red latex to meet the Queen. She does not change, deciding to be authentic in her star image in this controversial fashion statement in a royal, conservative contexxt.

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The BBC refer to this dress as "the outfit which shocked the world". The meaning can have many interpretations, although most assume its a statement for the music industry, suggesting female celebrities in the music industry are treated like meat. However, on 'The Ellen Show', Gaga revealed the dress is a political statement referring to the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy – which prevented service people from disclosing their sexual identity. Gaga displays her star image as a bold risktaker through this meat dress, displaying her dedication to her fanbases and making a statement to society. Indeed, she states If we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones'.

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Gaga was the face of the new Valentino Voce Vita Fragrance. It gave Valentino the means to advertise the new product under the influence of Gaga's beauty and elegance. It also provides Gaga with an additional component of her star image, developing her persona in the advertising realm, and providing audiences with a new image of wealth, sophistication and beauty associated with the Valentino brand.

Gaga was also able to advertise her new album, singing a stripped down version of "A Sine From Above". Harper's Bazaar writes:

The film's message "My Voice, My Strength" is meant to invite "people to use their voice to share their values, diversity and beliefs," according to the brand. “My voice is what I am standing for, what makes me heard, it’s the statement of my individuality. The voice is alive. It has its own life. It’s a force of nature. Nature is powerful. It’s important how you use it," Gaga says in the release.

This brand identity of individuality coincides with Gaga's star image, promoting authenticity and continuity of values associated with the Gaga persona.

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415K likes, 3,618 comments - ladygaga on September 17, 2020: "@maisonvalentino @valentino.beauty @pppiccioli #ValentinoVoceViva" 

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Gaga guest stars in an episode of American Horror Story, presenting her star image in a different light in media convergence.