A Happy Birthday is in order for the dual ‘Bad Romance’ pop star and ‘A Star Is Born’ actress’ big day!
Known to fans as Lady Gaga, the woman under the pop icon exterior, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is turning 38 today! The now iconic pop star began working at Interscope Records as a songwriter for artists like Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block and The Pussycat Dolls.
While there, Gaga was discovered by R&B singer Akon, while performing in a burlesque show dubbed “Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue.” From there, she wrote and recorded her debut album, “The Fame” through 2007 and 2008, garnering positive reviews in the United States and helping to launch “Haus of Gaga”! Her single “Just Dance” gave Gaga her first Billboard 100 chart topper, followed by “Poker Face” in the same year!
In 2011, Gaga released her defining gay anthem, “Born This Way,” directly inspired by Carl Bean, a gay Black activist whose 1977 song “I Was Born This Way” laid the groundwork for her pop classic!
In honor of this Mother Monster’s birthday, we’re giving you some of our favorite Lady Gaga moments!
A Day With Lady Gaga on MTV
Fans of Lady Gaga were given a glimpse inside the pop star’s palatial New York City apartment, and backstage at her Roseland Ballroom show, during a 2014 interview with MTV News! The grand tour began with Gaga inviting the news crew in for tea, drinking from a porcelain tea set gifted to the pop icon by Donatella Versace.
After the tea break, Gaga greets fans downstairs before departing to Rosland in a car ride through downtown New York!
The Hollywood Reporter Interview
Lady Gaga discussed her collaboration with American Horror Story: Hotel showrunner, Ryan Murphy, in a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Sitting on a couch and wearing an oversized Elvis Presley t-shirt, Gaga hilariously lists all of the reasons she loves Murphy with her describing him as “talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same and totally unique,” – to name a few.
“Joanne” Music Video
Turning away from her sensational pop music roots, Lady Gaga entered the country genre for her emotional fifth studio album titled Joanne. The solemn change of pace in Gaga’s music was inspired by her aunt, Joanne Germanotta, who died from Lupus complications at 19-years-old.
The emotional music video frames Gaga in black and white closeups as she says goodbye to her aunt, who she sadly never got the chance to meet.
Lady Gaga Performing ‘Shallow’ With Bradley Cooper at The Oscars
Lady Gaga took the stage at the 91st Academy Awards with her A Star Is Born co-star Bradley Cooper, for an intimate duet of the film’s unforgettable song, ‘Shallow.’ All eyes at the awards ceremony were on the pop star, as she plays the piano and sings under the spotlight across a singing Cooper.
Winning the Oscar for Best Original Song for ‘Shallow,’ this has to be one of Gaga’s most career-defining moments, given her massive transformation from the radio, to the big screen as the titular, star-making character in the Bradley Cooper-directed film!
Gaga’s Behind the Scenes Look as Countess in ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’
Before her role in A Star Is Born, Gaga made her dream of becoming an actress a reality in 2015 after landing a role in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: Hotel – stealing the show as a murderous countess in the fifth season of the horror anthology television series.
Contacting Murphy over the phone, Gaga made quite the impression on the AHS showrunner by seamlessly playing the countess with her dormant acting prowess!
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall
Though polar opposites in musical genres and wardrobe choices, Gaga and crooner Tony Bennett met in 2011, when Gaga sang a Nat King Cole song for The Robin Hood Foundation. The legendary jazz singer, who she hadn’t met before, was so impressed with Gaga’s rendition of the song that he suggested they record an album together!
Beginning their musical collaboration with the 2011 single, “The Lady is a Tramp,” they began production on their first album, “Cheek to Cheek,” which was released in 2014. Two years later and in between Gaga’s two solo albums, 2016’s “Joanne” and 2020’s “Chromatica,” the two icons began work on their second album, “Love For Sale.”
Recorded after Bennett’s saddening diagnosis of Alzheimers, the album released in 2021 and just in time for Bennett’s final public performance, alongside Gaga at the Radio City Music Hall in August, 2021.
These Lady Gaga moments are as iconic as her fashion senses, which is saying a lot! We wish this pop icon a very happy birthday as we listen through her discography of genre-defining music!
