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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 on May 23, 2011.[2]
Gaga's second studio album and third major release Born This Way, whose title was announced during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards,[88] will be released on May 23, 2011. Its arrival follows the release of its homonymous lead single on February 11, 2011.[89] The previous date for the single release of February 13, 2011, was tweeted by Gaga at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 2011.[90] Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major [...] metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats", Born This Way will be Gaga's third release in three years.[91] She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on [the album] 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."[92] With two tracks already confirmed by Gaga – one she has been performing during The Monster Ball Tour,[93] she has referred to the album as "the greatest" of the decade about "what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid."[94] Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level",[95] Gaga characterized her new music as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level."[96] On February 13, Gaga performed live for the first time her single "Born This Way", released on February 11, on the 53rd Grammy Awards. She was carried by fashion models through the red carpet in a gigantic embryo-shaped incubator (called "The Vessel" by its designer, Hussein Chalayan[97]), from where she emerged onstage for her performance. The song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, being the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.[98] As well as this, the song debuted at number one in seven other countries and sold more than one million digital copies in five days. Previous to the release of the album, the singer had bought her own music in October 2010[99] and in February 2011 was accused of being self-promotional.[100]
Lending her vocals elsewhere, Gaga also paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the forthcoming animated feature film Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", was released on February 11, 2011, without Gaga's vocals. The duet version is only featured in the film.[101][102][b]
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 on May 23, 2011.[2]
Gaga's second studio album and third major release Born This Way, whose title was announced during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards,[88] will be released on May 23, 2011. Its arrival follows the release of its homonymous lead single on February 11, 2011.[89] The previous date for the single release of February 13, 2011, was tweeted by Gaga at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 2011.[90] Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major [...] metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats", Born This Way will be Gaga's third release in three years.[91] She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on [the album] 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."[92] With two tracks already confirmed by Gaga – one she has been performing during The Monster Ball Tour,[93] she has referred to the album as "the greatest" of the decade about "what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid."[94] Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level",[95] Gaga characterized her new music as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level."[96] On February 13, Gaga performed live for the first time her single "Born This Way", released on February 11, on the 53rd Grammy Awards. She was carried by fashion models through the red carpet in a gigantic embryo-shaped incubator (called "The Vessel" by its designer, Hussein Chalayan[97]), from where she emerged onstage for her performance. The song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, being the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.[98] As well as this, the song debuted at number one in seven other countries and sold more than one million digital copies in five days. Previous to the release of the album, the singer had bought her own music in October 2010[99] and in February 2011 was accused of being self-promotional.[100]
Lending her vocals elsewhere, Gaga also paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the forthcoming animated feature film Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", was released on February 11, 2011, without Gaga's vocals. The duet version is only featured in the film.[101][102][b]