Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop singer-songwriter. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution. Gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album The Fame (2008), which was a commercial success and achieved international popularity with the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album reached number one on the record charts of six countries, accomplished positions within the top-ten worldwide, and topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart while simultaneously peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Achieving similar worldwide success, the follow-up EP The Fame Monster (2009), produced a further two global chart-topping singles "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and allowed her to embark on a second global headlining concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just months after having finished her first, The Fame Ball Tour. Her second studio album, Born This Way, is scheduled for release in 2011.
Born This Way is the forthcoming second studio album and third major release by American recording artist Lady Gaga. Revealing the title while accepting the 2010 MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and confirming dates on her official Twitter page at the stroke of midnight on New Years Day 2011, the album is scheduled for release on May 23, 2011 by Interscope Records following the release of its lead single on February 13, 2011. By late March of 2010, Gaga stated that she had begun working upon new material for Born This Way; adding that she had "already written the core of it." Three months later, she commented that she "felt very strongly" that she had completed the album. Upon being interviewed, she said, "It came so quickly. I've been working on it for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day." By the last quarter of 2010, Troy Carter, Gaga's manager, and frequent collaborator/producer RedOne gave personal opinions upon the album. Carter explained that they were just starting to play the album to the label. He said, "We're very excited about [Born This Way]. We're starting to play a little for people and getting a feel for it, and she's done an incredible job, a really incredible job. Well, you know what, it's not where I go from a business standpoint, it's more about where she goes creatively because, truth be told, we built the business around her creative infrastructure and that business that was built is unique to Lady Gaga." RedOne added, "I think it's more of her freedom album. [... T]his album that she's making is too precious to talk about. [...] I think it's too precious for me to talk about it."
On July 9, 2010, Gaga played a new song entitled "You and I" on the Today Show's Toyota Concert Series. She said it was from the new album and "has a different sound than the album." The confirmed track "You and I" has been added to her Monster Ball Tour, but she has said the entire album does not sound the same as that song. The album is intended to be "the anthem for [her] generation for the next decade." Gaga announced on November 26 during the Monster Ball in Gdansk, Poland, that the album could have up to 20 tracks, and promised that it would be the album of the decade. She also added that the album is completely finished. Gaga stated that it's full of "head-sledging dance beats." She also explained that the album is going to be like “bad kids going to church, having fun on a high level.” In an interview with BBC News Gaga commented on the album stating "The album is a marriage of electronic music with major, epic, dare I even say, metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats. It's finished and all, it's just fine-tuning everything. It's kind of like the post-operative stage of the album. I've already done the full heart surgery. I'm just sewing myself back up again. I think that lyrically this album is more poetic. It's really written by the fans, they really wrote it for me because every night they're funneling so much into me. So I wrote it for them. Born This Way is all about my little monsters and me, mother monster." At the 2010 VMA's, after accepting two prior awards, Lady Gaga announced the name of her new album was "Born This Way." She yelled it while accepting the award before. While accepting the final award, 'Video of the Year,' she said she promised (presumably to her friends) that if she won, she would announce the title of her new album. She then started singing the title track. The lyrics she sang were"I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes; I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way."
On December 25, 2010, Gaga tweeted that she would reveal an announcement about Born This Way at midnight on January 1, 2011. Nick Knight's website SHOWstudio.com's official Twitter also announced that Lady Gaga would announce reveal an announcement about Born This Way, as well as a new image of Gaga by Nick Knight. At midnight, on January 1, 2011, Gaga announced that the album is due to be released on May 23, 2011, preceded by the single's release on February 13, 2011. The image released was a black-and-white photograph "in which she is nude from the waist down, with her hair blowing about, and sporting a jacket with the album's title emblazoned in what look like bedazzled jewels". "Born This Way" will serve as the first single, and will be released on February 13, 2011. Gaga will be performing the single live at the 53rd Grammy Awards on the same day in Los Angeles. The song was produced by RedOne.
Lady Gaga is already getting her fans excited as she premiered a new song from her upcoming ‘Born This Way’ album at a fashion show in Paris. Gaga reportedly debuted a remixed version of “Scheiße” at Mugler’s Men’s Fashion Show in Paris, states Gossip On This. The song was reportedly also featured in a short film that was shown on both StyleList.com and Mugler.com. Gaga has been influenced by glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop music artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name, "Lady Gaga". She commented: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique – one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music."[92] In response to the comparisons between herself and Madonna, Gaga stated: "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionise pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago." Actress and singer Grace Jones was also cited as an inspiration, along with Blondie singer Debbie Harry. Gaga's vocals have drawn frequent comparison to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. While reviewing her debut album The Fame, The Sunday Times asserted "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, Lady GaGa evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now." Similarly, The Boston Globe critic Sarah Rodman commented that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats." Though her lyrics are said to lack intellectual stimulation, "[she] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace." Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B-ish beats. Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence. She considers Donatella Versace her muse. Gaga has her own creative production team called the Haus of Gaga, which she handles personally. The team creates many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos. Her love of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful." "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us." The Global Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark "no pants" coming in at No. 3. Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."