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Lady Gaga

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Lady Gaga

Stefani Germanotta (born March 20, 1986), best known by her stage name Lady GaGa, is an Italian-American singer-songwriter and dance-pop/electronica musician signed to Interscope Records.

Biography

Early life

She attended Convent of the Sacred Heart School, an exclusive private all-girls school. As a little girl, she remembers singing into a plastic tape recorder to the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson. By age four, Lady GaGa had taught herself to play the piano by ear. When she was a teenager she penned her first song. When she was just fourteen she was playing open mic nights at New York’s Bitter End, and by the age of seventeen she was one of twenty people in the world to gain early admission to the Clive Davis program at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She was a fixture in the productions of the Regis High School Repertory, including the roles of Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anna Andreyevna in The Government Inspector, Lola in Damn Yankees, Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Alice More in A Man for All Seasons. She also sang in the productions of the Regis Jazz Band.

Discovering the Fame

Germanotta started hanging out downtown, performing in the Lower East Side club scene. Finding herself surrounded by singers who all wrote the same style of music, she decided to do something fresh and provocative in the rock'n roll underground: pop music.[1] In 2006, she started working with music producer Rob Fusari, with whom she wrote several of her early downtown hits like "Beautiful Dirty Rich", "Dirty Ice Cream" and "Disco Heaven". It was when she wrote the song "Again, Again" with Fusari that she created the stage name, Lady GaGa (which is a reference to the song "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen).[2]. He said she was "so theatrical and dramatic, so Freddie Mercury, so Radio Ga-Ga" while she belted out the song on piano, he started calling her GaGa around the studio as a nickname to which Stefani later added "Lady", to feminize it.[3]

Lady GaGa was originally signed to Def Jam when she was 19 years old but was dropped after three months.[4] In early 2007, she was offered a deal with Interscope, hired as a songwriter and partnered with singer/producer/songwriter Akon. While working on demo tracks for an artist signed to Konvict Muzik, Tami Chynn, Akon would have GaGa go into the booth to lay down reference vocals. Realizing her immense singing talent and after listening to her demo recordings, Akon later signed her to a joint deal with Kon Live.[5]

During this time, Lady GaGa joined forces with Lower East Side DJ/go-go dancer/performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped GaGa create her on stage fashions.[6] The pair collaborated on many projects such as "Lady GaGa and the Starlight Revue"- a low-fi tribute to 1970's variety acts which featured then-brunette Lady GaGa on synth, Lady Starlight spinning beats, choregraphed go-go moves, shiny disco balls, and hairspray, lit on fire and sprayed into the audience.[7]

It was through her affiliation with Akon, that Lady GaGa started to work on her own new material for her debut album with producer RedOne. Already having a solid selection of electro-glam, David Bowie-esque, Queen inspired songs, GaGa wanted to mix her retro dance beats with urban melodies, a pop chorus and still retain a rock'n roll edge. The first song they produced was "Boys, Boys, Boys", a track inspired by Mötley Crüe's hit "Girls, Girls, Girls" mashed with AC/DC's "T.N.T".[8]

In August 2007 Lady GaGa and the Starlight Revue performed at Lollapalooza, where the Ladies dazzled and shocked the crowd with their wild performance art piece. It was while walking around the concert grounds that Lady GaGa had a brush with the law. She received an indecent exposure citation from a bicycle cop for wearing "hot pants."[9]

In October 2007, the scantily clad duo combined their love of performance art, burlesque pop, rock'n roll, sequined panties, 70's glam and 80's metal into a weekly party , "New York Street Revival and Trash Dance". It was here that Lady GaGa would debut not only her new bleach blonde hair but also test drive her revamped stage concept- performing choreographed dance routines accompanied by two female backup dancers while DJ Lady Starlight played the backing tracks.

By 2008 Lady GaGa had relocated to Los Angeles, working closly with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame. While her music ignited the blogosphere, her creative team "Haus of GaGa" (a reference to the cult documentary film about late 1980's voguing balls in Harlem, Paris Is Burning)[10], promoted the image of Lady GaGa worldwide via fashion, technology and various media.

On October 28, 2008, Lady Gaga released her debut album The Fame in the U.S. The album reached #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums. It's first week sales were 24,000 units. The next week the album fell to #52. It has released 2 official singles which are "Poker Face" and "Just Dance (feat. Colby O' Donis)". The album has also spawned the promo single "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich". "Just Dance" has reached a peak position of #21. Poker Face is on #25 on Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (#125 on Billboard Hot 100).

Success

Building upon the online hype, Lady GaGa returned to her club roots, touring the world throughout the summer with her with two dancers, Dina and Coco and her new DJ/producer Space Cowboy, who is also signed to Interscope. Her performances are accompanied by her infamous 'Disco Stick', and more recently a pair of metallic sunglasses with digital screens as lenses which play video content. Her myspace page showcases a weekly web video entitled: "Transmission Gaga-Vision" which highlight performances and appearances made by Lady GaGa. Shot in grainy black and white and featuring the performer talking candidly in bed with her dancers, the videos are an obvious homage to the film Truth or Dare which documented the American entertainer Madonna on her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.

In the fall of 2008 Haus of GaGa turned their focus upon the USA market, with Lady Gaga going on tour with fellow Interscope group, the reformed New Kids on the Block. Collaborating with New Kids on the Block, Lady GaGa is a featured guest on the song "Big Girl Now" off their new album, The Block. To coincide with her newest releases, ABC have commissioned a video promo uniting GaGa's second single "Beautiful Dirty Rich" with their similarly titled hit show Dirty Sexy Money. Lady GaGa is currently on tour with New Kids on the Block as their opening act.

Critical reception

Lady GaGa has received praise and criticism from both professional critics and the general public. The New York Post called her the "future of pop"[11] and Billboard magazine praised her debut album "The Fame" as an album full of hits. Us Weekly called her "Pop's New Dance Diva".[12] However, ArtistDirect.com said musically she is "never taking a single footstep off the path already trod".[13]

TV appearances and performances

Though Lady Gaga's career has just started, she has been performing at clubs and cabarets. She has also been featured on a large number of TV shows. Lady GaGa made her first televised appearance on the first ever NewNowNext Awards presented by Logo channel, a gay television network owned by MTV, where she performed Just Dance. Next she went on to perform at the Miss Universe Pageant and the video instantly became a viral video success gaining over 500,000+ views on the popular media site Youtube. After appearing on the fourth season of So You Think You Can Dance on July 31, 2008 she coined her own catch phrase - "Pop Music Will Never Be Low Brow." To date she continues to make various appearances on shows from the US reality hit The Hills to the Australian morning show Sunrise with Kochie and Mel. In addition some of Lady Gaga's songs such as "Papparazzi" and the third single "Poker Face" have been featured on the second season of the CW show Gossip Girl. To promote her album, she embarked on a world tour, traveling and performing through North America and Europe. Lady GaGa performed everywhere from nightclubs to TV shows and festivals. The song Just Dance is on the movie Make It Happen . On September 3, 2008, she hosted the premiere episode of NewNowNext PopLab.

Discography

Main article: Lady GaGa discography

Studio albums

Notable writing credits

References

  1. ^ Blogcritics Magazine's Lady GaGa Interview.
  2. ^ Ron Slomowicz. Lady GaGa Interview. About.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
  3. ^ Kyle and Jackie O Lady GaGa Interview. About.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-22.
  4. ^ Billboard article on Lady GaGa.
  5. ^ Billboard article on Lady GaGa.
  6. ^ Interview with Lady GaGa.
  7. ^ Yahoo Music Who's Next exclusive interview. Yahoo.com.
  8. ^ Kiwibox Lady GaGa exclusive interview
  9. ^ W Magazine Lady GaGa Interview. W Magazine.
  10. ^ Haus of GaGa. www.ladygaga.com.
  11. ^ http://www.nypost.com/seven/10282008/entertainment/music/she_does_it_her_way_135619.htm
  12. ^ http://ladygaga.com/news/Default.aspx/pg/7
  13. ^ http://artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4768586,00.html
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