Artist selected as the second strongest musician in the world: Who is Lady Gaga?

Real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986 in Manhattan, New York City. She was born into a Catholic family, her mother Cynthia Louise Bissett, a philanthropist and business executive, and her father, Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur. Gaga, whose parents are of Italian descent, has a younger sister named Natali.

At the age of four, Gaga started taking piano lessons at her mother's insistence, and practiced throughout her childhood. Thanks to the lessons she took, she learned to make music by ear, which she preferred to sheet music. Her family encouraged her to be interested in music and enrolled her in the Creative Arts Camp. Playing at open mic nights when she was a teenager, Gaga played the lead roles in the play "Guys and Dolls" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at Regis High School. She also studied acting for ten years at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute.

At the age of 17, she was accepted into Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music school at New York University. Gaga, who studied music there, honed her songwriting skills by writing essays on art, religion, social issues and politics. In 2005, she dropped out of school to focus on her music career, and that year starred as a diner shopper on MTV's playful reality television show "Boiling Points."

Also in the same year, she sang two songs for an audiobook accompanying the children's novel "The Portal in the Park" with hip-hop artist Melle Mel. She also formed a band called "SGBand" with her college friends, and the group has become a favorite of the downtown Lower East Side club scene, performing around New York City. Music producer Rob Fusari collaborated with Gaga to help develop her songs and compose new material. Fusari, who said they started dating in May 2006, also said she was the first person to call Gaga "Lady Gaga", derived from Queen's song "Radio Ga Ga". 

The couple formed a company called "Team Lovechild, LLC" to further their careers. They recorded and produced music tracks and sent them to music industry executives. Having been fired from the company three months later, Gaga returned to her family's home for Christmas. Gaga, who started performing in shows that represent freedom for her, met performance artist Lady Starlight. The couple began performing at club venues in some city centres, and in 2007 they performed at the Lollapalooza music festival.

Initially focusing on electronic dance music, Gaga incorporated pop tunes and glam rock into her songs. While Gaga was performing, Fusari sent her co-created songs to producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. In November 2007, Herbert incorporated Gaga into his own label, "Streamline Records". As a result, Gaga has written songs for 'Britney Spears', 'New Kids on the Block', 'Fergie' and 'Pussycat Dolls'. In late 2007, Gaga teamed up and collaborated with songwriter and producer RedOne and signed with Cherrytree Records, founded by Martin Kierszenbaum.

The following year, she moved to Los Angeles to extensively work on her debut album "The Fame" with her own record label and set up her own creative team called "Haus of Gaga". The album was released on August 19, 2008 and reached number one in many countries, while reaching the top five in Australia and the USA. Her first two songs, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", reached number one on the national charts. The second song was also the world's best-selling song of 2009 and spent a record 83 weeks on Billboard magazine's chart. At the 52nd Grammy Awards, the album and the song "Poker Face" won Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Dance Recording awards, respectively.

Gaga undertook the worldwide "The Fame Ball Tour", which ran from March to September. While traveling the world she wrote eight songs for the album's reissue, "The Fame Monster". Her first song "Bad Romance" was released and peaked at number one on the charts of many countries. Her second single, "Telephone" with Beyoncé, followed, and became Gaga's fourth number one in the UK. The video "Bad Romance" became the most watched video on YouTube in April 2010, while Gaga also found success as the first person to have more than one billion total views. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won eight awards out of 13 nominations, making her the first woman to receive the most nominations in a single year and to be nominated twice for Video of the Year at the same ceremony. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and the song "Bad Romance" won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Also in the same year, Gaga broke a record of 150 weeks on the most stana singles chart and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most downloaded actress in the US in a year. The two albums have sold over 15 million copies worldwide, making the remake album the second best-selling album of 2010. Her success helped Gaga embark on her second worldwide concert tour "The Monster Ball Tour" and release her remix album "The Remix" with Cherrytree Records. The concert tour was the highest-grossing concert tour for an artist performing for the first time with the proceeds. Concerts were filmed for the HBO television show "Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden". Around this time, she started a business with Monster Cable Products to manufacture jewel-encrusted in-ear headphones called "Lady Gaga's Heartbeats".

In February 2011, Gaga released "Born This Way", the title track from her studio album of the same name. The single earned the Guinness World Record as the fastest selling song on iTunes, selling over a million copies in five days. The song, which entered the charts at number one, also managed to become the 1000th number-one single in the history of the charts. This was followed by her second song "Judas" and her third song "The Edge of Glory", which she released two months later. Both reached the top 10 on the charts.

The title song was released on May 23, 2011 and debuted at the top of the chart. The album sold eight million copies worldwide, earning Gaga three Grammy Award nominations, including her third consecutive Album of the Year nomination. Rolling Stone magazine named Gaga among its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" of 2020. In 2012, she made a guest appearance on the "Lisa Goes Gaga" episode of the animated sitcom "The Simpsons".

Gaga started working on her third studio album "Artpop" in early 2012. She released the title song of the album "Applause" in August 2013 and managed to enter the top five in the charts of the countries. The second song of the album featuring singer R. Kelly, "Do What U Want" was released and reached the top of the chart in Hungary. The album was released to mixed reviews and topped the Billboard 200 chart.

She later appeared in the action crime anthology film "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" (2014) directed by Rodriguez and became the 2014 spring-summer 2014 ambassador for the Versace brand with a campaign called "Lady Gaga For Versace".

Later in 2014, she released a collaborative jazz album with Tony Bennett called "Cheek to Cheek". The inspiration behind the album came from her friendship with Bennett and her fascination with jazz music since childhood. The album received generally positive reviews and became Gaga's third consecutive number-one album in the lists. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

After the cold response to "Artpop", Gaga began to explore her image and style. According to Billboard, this change began with her performance at the 87th Academy Awards and was recognized by Billboard as one of her best performances. Gaga and Diane Warren co-wrote the song "Til It Happens to You" for the documentary "The Hunting Ground," which earned the duo a Satellite Award and Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. She was also crowned with the "Billboard Woman of the Year" and "Contemporary Icon Award" at the 2015 Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards.

Aspiring to be an actress for most of her life, Gaga came to terms with her role as Elizabeth, a hotel owner, in the horror anthology TV series "American Horror Story: Hotel". At the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, Gaga won the Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Movie for her performance. She was featured in Nick Knight's 2015 fashion movie for Tom Ford's spring 2016 campaign. She also appeared as a guest editor for the 99th issue of fashion magazine 'V' in January 2016, and was subsequently named Editor of the Year at the Fashion Los Angeles Awards.

That same year, Gaga sang the US national anthem at the Super Bowl 50 football game. In April, she was crowned with the Artist Award at the Jane Ortner Education Awards by the Grammy Museum, which recognizes artists with a passion and commitment to education through the arts. From September to November 2016, Gaga played the role of a witch named Scathach in the series' sixth season, "American Horror Story: Roanoke." At that time, she released "Perfect Illusion", the lead single from her fifth album, which reached number one on the charts. Her fifth album, "Joanne", was named after Gaga's late aunt, who inspired her music. The album was released on October 21, 2016 and became Gaga's fourth number-one album on the chart. Thus, making her the first woman to reach the top of the list four times in the 2010s. The next month, the album's second track "Million Reasons" was released, and later in 2018, she released a piano version of the album's title track. Her song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance.

Gaga appeared at Houston's NRG Stadium at the Super Bowl LI halftime show on February 5, 2017. Her performance featured a group of hundreds of illuminated drones forming various shapes in the sky, making the show the second most watched Super Bowl halftime show to date. Her performance earned her an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Classroom Special Programme. In April, Gaga released her Australian top 10 independent song "The Cure". 

In March 2018, she co-starred with Bradley Cooper as singer Ally in the musical romantic drama film "A Star Is Born" directed by Bradley Cooper, a remake of the 1937 film of the same name. The film received critical acclaim and premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. She was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her performance, as well as the National Board of Review and Critics' Choice awards for Best Actress.

Gaga and Cooper co-wrote and sang most of the songs on the soundtrack of "A Star Is Born." The title song "Shallow", performed by the duo, was released on September 27, 2018 and topped the charts in various countries. The soundtrack contained 34 tracks and received generally positive reviews. The soundtrack debuted at number one commercially, making Gaga the first woman to have five number-one albums in the US in the 2010s. It also topped the charts in many countries. The album earned Gaga four Grammy Awards, and the song won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics' Choice Award, and Satellite Award for Best Original Song.

Her sixth studio album, "Chromatica", was released on May 29, 2020, to positive reviews. It topped the charts, becoming her sixth consecutive number-one album in the country and peaking in more than a dozen other regions. Before the album, two songs were released, "Stupid Love" and "Rain on Me", which she sang with Ariana Grande. The second single won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards and debuted at number one in the US, making Gaga the third person to top the chart in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. At the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won five awards, including the first Tricon Award, which honors successful artists in different fields of the entertainment industry.

She released her third remix album, "Dawn of Chromatica", on September 3. This success was followed by the second joint album "Love for Sale" with Tony Bennett on September 30. The album, which received generally positive reviews, entered the charts at number eight. Another performance that the duo recorded for the TV series "MTV Unplugged" aired in December. At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, the song earned Gaga and Bennett the award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

After appearing in the television sitcom "Friends: The Reunion", where she sang "Smelly Cat" with Lisa Kudrow, she set out to murder her ex-husband and the former head of the organization in the biographical crime drama film "House of Gucci" directed by Ridley Scott. She played the character of Patrizia Reggiani, who was convicted of hiring a hit man. Learning to speak with an Italian accent for her role, Gaga retained her character for 18 months, during which time she spoke with an accent for nine months. The film was released to mixed reviews, with critics rated Gaga's performance as "excellent". Her performance earned her a New York Film Critics Circle Award and nominations for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, a Critics' Choice Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Gaga wrote the song "Hold My Hand" for the 2022 action drama movie "Top Gun: Maverick". She also composed the music for the film she, along with Hans Zimmer and Harold Faltermeyer. Performing her song live at the 95th Academy Awards, Gaga received a nomination for Best Original Song. The song also won its third award for Best Original Song at the Satellite Awards. In July 2022, she went on a big-grossing "The Chromatica Ball" stadium tour. At the end of the year, she became the top-grossing female artist touring in 2022. Gaga will co-star with Joaquin Phoenix in the musical psychological thriller "Joker: Folie à Deux", set to hit theaters in 2024.

Private life

Gaga met actor Taylor Kinney in July 2011 while filming the music video for a song and they started dating. The couple got engaged in February 2015 and announced their separation in July 2016, saying that her career was interfering with their relationship. Later, Gaga announced she was engaged to talent agent Christian Carino, whom she met in early 2017. The couple decided to end their engagement in February 2019. Finally, in February 2020, she started a romantic relationship with entrepreneur Michael Polansky.

Shortly before her suicide in 2010, Gaga met and befriended British fashion designer Alexander McQueen. She became known for wearing the designer's soaring armadillo shoes, especially she. Considered "one of the greatest living musical artists", Gaga has been described as a perfectionist when it comes to her elaborate shows. She was also placed at number one on the "Best Dressed Stars of 2021" list by People magazine. Additionally, Time magazine included Gaga in their list of "100 Fashion Icons of All Time".

Gaga made headlines at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards when she donned a raw beef dress, a pair of boots, a bag, and a raw beef hat. Awarded with this dress, Gaga was named one of the "Best Dressed People of 2010" by Vogue magazine, and Time magazine named the dress its "Fashion Statement" of the year.

Gaga, who supports many institutions, organizations, aid funds and campaigns, has also managed to become a popular artist with her philanthropy. A bisexual woman, Gaga actively supports LGBT rights around the world and is considered a gay icon. Gaga has also contributed to the fight against HIV and AIDS by focusing on educating young women about the risks of the disease. Gaga and Cyndi Lauper joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a lipstick line under the name "Viva Glam", complementary cosmetic products.

In 2014, she launched her first fragrance, "Lady Gaga Fame", followed by her second fragrance, "Eau de Gaga". It also launched its vegan makeup line "Haus Laboratories" exclusively on Amazon in September 2019. From liquid eyeliner to lip gloss to face mask stickers, this make-up line has reached number one on Amazon's best-selling lipsticks list. In September 2020, she appeared in the video campaign of the luxury fashion house Valentino's Voce Viva perfume. In April 2021, the brand "Champagne" teamed up with Dom Pérignon and featured in a commercial shot by Nick Knight.

Gaga also loves to cook and sing. In addition, her favorite flower is the white rose. She demonstrates her talent by staying on the same note for 20 seconds.