Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in 1986, Gaga was raised by Italian-American parents.
She and her parents Joseph, an Internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia, a Verizon executive lived in a duplex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Gaga is known for her work ethic and her studiousness and it started because her parents cared deeply about education from a young age and enrolled their daughter at Convent of the Sacred Heart, an Upper East Side private Catholic school. That’s where the merciless bullying began.
“I used to do these really big Evita brows,” Gaga told Rolling Stone in 2011. “I used to self-tan, and I had this really intense tan in school, and people would say, ‘Why the fuck are you so orange, why do you do your hair that way, are you a dyke? Why do you have to look like that for school?’ I used to be called a slut, be called this, be called that. I didn’t even want to go to school sometimes.”
But Gaga credits that bullying, for better and for worse, with her drive to overcome. “Bullying really stays with you your whole life,” she told Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. “And it really, really never goes away. And I know you’re using words like ‘superstar’ and ‘most-Googled’ and ‘billions of YouTube [views].’ But I was never the winner. I was always the loser. And that still stays with me. And do I want to stick it to anybody? No. I just wanna make music.”
When Gaga turned 11, she started taking vocal lessons from Christina Aguilera’s singing coach, Don Lawrence. She still takes lessons from Lawrence to this day; to prep for her Sound of Music tribute, Gaga practiced with him every single day for half a year leading up to the performance. As a kid, she learned classical piano and took a full day of acting classes every Saturday. She never underestimated the value of thoughtful study as a child in a classic rock cover band or as a grown superstar.
“I was classically trained as a pianist and that innately teaches you how to write a pop song,” Gaga told the Telegraph. “Because when you learn Bach inversions, it has the same sort of modulations between the chords. It’s all about tension and release.”
Though always grateful for her education, Gaga wasn’t afraid to take risks. After surviving high school, Gaga enrolled in NYU Tisch School of the Arts, but it wasn’t long before she dropped out to become a rock star. “I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find and ate shit until somebody would listen,” she told New York Magazine.
It seemed like she’d be successful at first. At 19 years old, Gaga signed to Def Jam records. But after three months, the label delivered a crushing blow and dropped her. “It just wasn’t for them,” she told the Sunday Times. By then, she was used to bouncing back.
To her father’s chagrin, Gaga had moved to the Lower East Side, where she dabbled in cocaine and danced in dive bar burlesque shows. “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,” she told the Telegraph.
But in 2008, Gaga’s then-boyfriend Rob Fusari brought Gaga to Interscope records as a songwriter, where she composed hits for New Kids on the Block (whom she also toured with early on), Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears. While singing a reference vocal for a song she had written, Gaga caught the ear of R&B songwriter Akon; he signed Gaga to his own label. Her moment had come.
Gaga had a goodbye party with her lowersides friends of New York from a Bar. The next day she flew to Los Angeles to meet RedOne in the studio and still hungover, she wrote JustDance in ten minutes as “A happy record”. In a week, they wrote together PokerFace and LoveGame. After that, she signed a recording deal with Interscope and began officially the production of her Debut album Also, she was sent to write songs with Akon for Tami Chynn, an artist signed to Konvict Muzik in Atlanta. For the first time, Akon recognized her vocal abilities during her singing of a reference vocal to one of his tracks in the studio.
Within the year, Gaga had released her first album, The Fame, to critical and popular acclaim. “It’d be easy to dismiss a 22-year-old debut artist sporting a blonde Cher wig, hooded Catwoman suit and glowing staff she calls the ‘disco stick’ — but not if she delivers an album full of hits,” Billboard wrote in their praising review. “The full-length The Fameproves she’s more than one hit and a bag of stage tricks.” The album went on to sell more than 4 million units. It made her a legend, and she began returning the favour to her fans almost immediately.
“When we were working, Akon would say, ‘Get in the booth and cut these vocals,’ and he’d always tell me I could really sing. So he decided he wanted to be a part of my music,” Gaga said about working with Akon, who ultimately convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to sign her to a joint deal with Konlive. “He spoke to Jimmy, and we decided to become a big family.” Lady Gaga
As a result, she was commissioned by Interscope to write for labelmates New Kids on the Block with RedOne, Nicole Scherzinger’s solo album and the Pussycat Dolls with Rondey DJ and some others with Akon. Two of hers songs was picked by Britney Spears and recorded but only one was released, “Quicksand” as a bonus track in Europe. Gaga also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum.
In May of 2008, Gaga and the Haus debuted the DiscoStick and the “Fame” glasses made of frozen acrylic. She also did her first live performance on television at the 2008 NewNowNext Awards.
Official launch party of Sessions on Sunset at Studio 944. Interscope and Guitar Hero sponsored the party as well as Asahi, Belvedere and Bling Water. She used a “Nord Lead 3” synthesizer.
Lady Gaga wears a jumpsuit and the Disco Stick by Haus of Gaga, shoes by Burberry Prorsum, and sunglasses by Gucci.
This was just the beginning of Gaga’s wild crazy journey.
To Be Continued…
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