This my artistic persona of Lady Gaga. It is for my media music video project.

1. Lady Gaga
By Anna-May Carey

2. Early Career …
• At 19 Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga, decided to withdraw from CAP21 as she wanted to
focus more on her musical career. Stefani’s father agreed to pay for anything she needed, as long as she agreed
that if nothing came of her ambitious dream after a year she was to re-enroll at Tisch. In the early summer of
2005 Stefani recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel for an audio book, as well
as the children's book, ‘The Portal in the Park’, by Cricket Casey. She was determined to live out her ambitious
dream of making it in the music industry so she began a band called Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand). The
band included guitarist Calvin Pia, bassist Eli Silverman, drummer Alex Beckmann and booking manager Frank
Fredericks, most of which were friends from NYC. Greenwich Village's The Bitter End and the Lower East Side's
the Mercury Lounge allowed the band to play which led to them creating a small fan base of which got them
recognition of music producer Joe Vulpis. After having time in Vulpis’ studio SGBand were performing at New
York gigs, creating a local fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene.
• March 2006 Stefani met a music producer Rob Fusari, at this time SGBand had reached the peak of their career.
Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room was where Fusari was informed of
Stefani’s talent and ability. Wendy Starland appeared at this event where she was informed he was looking for
a female singer for a new band, she then told him that he should contact Stefani as she had great ability.
Stefani took him up on his offer and travelled daily to New Jersey to work on songs she had written and
composing new material with music producers. Fusari had compared Stefani to Freddie Mercury (lead singer
of Queen) where her name came from. As the two were allegedly dating he says that they created Lady Gaga as
a moniker of the song ‘Radio Ga Ga’ by Queen. Fusari said that everyday that she came to the studio he would
sing ‘Radio Ga Ga’ as that was her entrance song. Stefani agreed that, that was the name and told Fusari to
never call her Stefani again and so Lady Gaga was born.

3. Early Career …
• They then went on to establish a company titled Team Lovechild, this is where they felt they could record and
produce electropop tracks. Joshua Sarubin responded encouragingly to the songs. After speaking to his boss
Antonio he agreed that Lady Gaga was unusual and provocative but was appealing to the company. The plan
was to have an album ready in nine months as soon as she was signed. This was not the case as three months
after she was signed she was dropped. After this devastating news Gaga returned home for Christmas, where
her relationship with Fusari ended and she then became progressively experimental, where she would do go-go
dancing at bars, dressed very provocative with as little as a bikini on. When Lady Gaga started taking drugs her
father did not understand the reason behind her taking drugs and was disappointed to the point where he
wouldn’t look at her for several months. Lady Gaga then explained "I was onstage in a thong, with a fringe
hanging over my ass thinking that had covered it, lighting hairsprays on fire, go-go dancing to Black Sabbath
and singing songs about oral sex. The kids would scream and cheer and then we'd all go grab a beer. It
represented freedom to me. I went to a Catholic school but it was on the New York underground that I found
myself." This is when her inspiration found her and allowed her to create the songs, she dated a man who was a
heavy metal drummer and said he was her Danny and she was his Sandy using intertextual reference to Grease
the film.

4. Early Career …
• This allowed Lady Gaga to meet a performance artist Lady Starlight. Lady Starlight helped Lady Gaga with her
on-stage persona, Lady Starlight also explained that when Lady Gaga and herself first met, Lady Gaga wanted to
perform songs not only had she recorded with Fusari but songs about Fusari. Similar to Lady Gaga’s previous
band SGBand, they both started performing at many club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and
the Rockwood Music Hall. Then the two were invited to play at the August 2007 Lollapalooza music festival,
which led to great reviews of their act. Lady Gaga realised that her music was more fitting to her when she in
cooperated pop melodies and glam rock, for example David Bowie and Queen. While Lady Gaga and Lady
Starlight were performing Fusari was still working on songs for her which he then sent to Vincent Herbert, who
automatically signed her to his label Streamline Records. When people asked who discovered her she said
Herbert, "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going.“
• Lady Gaga also wrote songs for many big acts such as Britney Spears and The Pussy Cat Dolls, due to her
experience with Fusari. Then at Interscope, Akon acknowledged her great vocal abilities, when she sang some of
his song in the studio. From this Akon decided to talk to the Chairman and CEO Jimmy Lovine to create a
contract where Lady Gaga would also be signed to his own label Kon Live. This would make her a ‘franchise
player’, in the industry as she was signed to two labels.

5. The Fame And The Monster …
• In 2008 Lady Gaga moved to Los Angeles, California in order to
complete her debut album and set up her own creative team to be
called the Haus Of Gaga. Her album ‘The Fame’ was first released on
the 19th of August 2008, which was a hit due to her first major hit and
lead single ‘Just Dance’ being pre released four months before. Lady
Gaga got her first Grammy Award from this song, as it was awarded
the Best Dance Recording. An even greater success came for Lady
Gaga when she released another hit ‘Poker Face’, this single sold 9.8
million copies. It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd
Annual Grammy Awards, with nominations for Song of the Year and
Record of the Year.
• Her album ‘The Fame’ was nominated for Album of the Year as well as
the Best Dance/Electronica Album. Some critics said this album was
all about her obsession with fame and the rich and famous lifestyle,
which wasn’t the case. Her album went to number one in Austria,
Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK. Whereas it
appeared in the top five in Australia, USA and fifteen other countries.
The album its self sold over 12 million copies worldwide, while staying
at the top of Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 106 non – consecutive
weeks. Lady Gaga then went on to write The Fame Monster.
‘Telephone’ by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé was also awarded for a
Grammy Award for Best Collaboration Of Vocals. Although the music
video that went with it was considered very controversial it received
positive feedback saying she had the showmanship of Michael Jackson
and the sexiness of Madonna. “Alejandro” on the other hand got good
reviews for its dark nature but was criticised by the Catholic League
for her alleged use of blasphemy. At the 2010 MTV Music Awards,
Lady Gaga was the first female artist to be nominated twice for the
award.

6. The Fame And The Monster …
• The Fame Monster album allowed Lady Gaga to do a second worldwide
concert tour. Lady Gaga performed her album at international events such
as the Royal Variety in 2009. Lady Gaga done other performances such as
Michael Jackson’s This Is It concert series at London’s O2 Arena. "I was
actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated. "We were going to
open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it happen. I believe
there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing duets with Michael
on stage”. She then went on to collaborate with consumer electronic
company Monster Cable Products to create a pair of in-ear jewel-encrusted
headphones titled Heartbeats. "They are designed to be the first ever fashion
accessories that double as the absolute best sonically sounding headphones
in the world," she commented. Lady Gaga had been tested borderline positive
for lupus, but claimed not to be affected by the symptoms, this was after her
ex Rob Fusari tried to sue her. When it cam out that Lady Gaga may have
lupus it caused considerable dismay among fans, leading to Lady Gaga
having to address the matter in an interview with Larry King, saying she
hopes to avoid symptoms by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

7. Born This Way …
• Lady Gaga released her second album Born This Way in the year 2011.
Her new album consists of electronic music and metal, Lady gaga said
she wanted this album to be "about what keeps us up at night and what
makes us afraid” she then went on to say it is “something so much deeper
than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress“. The album went on to
receive positive reviews due to the range of different vocal styles. Born
This Way sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the USA and
received three Grammy Award nominations. Lady Gaga’s song "Born This
Way", was first sung live at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. “The Edge
of Glory” got a first commercial success in some digital outlets ands was
liked a lot by critics. She also released “You and I” and “Marry the Night”
hoping they would be as successful as the rest of her album but
unfortunately both failed the international success unlike the rest of her
album. Lady Gaga then went on to do a duet for the film Gnomeo & Juliet
with Elton John. Lady Gaga also had the honor of performing at the form
US president Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday trying to be a look a like of
Marilyn Monroe. Lady Gaga also appeared on the finale season of The
Simpsons, which was titled “Lisa Goes Gaga”, this was in may 2012. As
well she appeared on Bennett's documentary “The Zen of Bennett”. Born
This Way Ball was a success for Lady Gaga and consisted of a hundred
and ten shows which got great reviews. But when Lady Gaga’s right hip
had teared and been injured she had to cancel the remaining tour dates.

8. Lady Gaga’s Influences …
• The Beatles
• Stevie Wonder
• Queen
• Bruce Springsteen
• Pink Floyd
• Mariah Carey
• Led Zeppelin
• Whitney Houston
• Elton John
• Blondie
• Garbage
• Iron Maiden
• Black Sabbath

9. Lady Gaga’s Weird Outfits …