Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is the professional name of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, born March 28, 1986, in Manhattan, New York City. An American singer, songwriter, and actress, she became one of popular music’s defining figures through image reinventions and a wide range of work across entertainment. With estimated sales of 124 million records, she is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and publications including Billboard and Rolling Stone have ranked her among the greatest artists in history.

Gaga was raised with her younger sister, Natali, in an upper-middle-class Catholic family on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Her parents, Cynthia Louise Bissett and Joseph Germanotta, both of Italian ancestry, had come from lower-class families and worked hard for what they had. At 11, Gaga began attending the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Catholic school. She later described herself as dedicated, studious, and disciplined, but also insecure. She felt like a misfit and was mocked for being too provocative or too eccentric.

Music came early. Gaga began playing piano at age four after her mother insisted she become “a cultured young woman.” She took lessons, learned by ear, and practiced through childhood. Her parents encouraged her interest in music, and as a teenager she played open mic nights. She also acted, playing lead roles in school productions of Guys and Dolls and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and studied method acting for ten years at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. In 2003, she entered New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts through Collaborative Arts Project 21, where she studied music and sharpened her songwriting through essays on art, religion, social issues, and politics. She left school in 2005 to focus on music.

After signing with Interscope Records in 2007, Gaga gained global recognition with The Fame in 2008 and its reissue, The Fame Monster, in 2009. Those releases produced major singles including “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” and “Bad Romance,” making her one of the few artists with at least three Diamond-certified songs in the United States. Her 2011 album Born This Way explored electronic rock and techno-pop, sold 1.1 million copies in its first week in the U.S., and had a title track that became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store. She later moved through electronic dance music on Artpop, jazz with Tony Bennett on Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale, soft rock on Joanne, and pop on Chromatica and Mayhem.

Her acting career brought major attention as well. Gaga earned praise for leading roles in American Horror Story: Hotel, A Star Is Born, and House of Gucci. Her work on the A Star Is Born soundtrack, including the number-one single “Shallow,” made her the first person to win an Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy Award in one year. In the United States, she has had seven number-one albums and six number-one songs, and her honors include 16 Grammy Awards, 22 MTV Video Music Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Sports Emmy Award, and recognition from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Gaga’s outlook was shaped by discipline, Catholic schooling, early performance, New York club work, and painful personal experience. She has spoken about being raped at 19 and living with PTSD, as well as the help she received from doctors, family, and friends. Her philanthropy and activism focus on mental health awareness and LGBTQ rights, and her Born This Way Foundation supports the wellness of young people. Her words still carry weight because they come from an artist who has made change, honesty, and survival part of her public life.