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Lady Gaga
Photo: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons27

Lady Gaga

American singer, songwriter and actress (born 1986)

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. An influential figure in popular music, she is known for her image reinventions, flamboyant fashion, and versatility across the entertainment industry.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Lady Gaga (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Mar 28, 1986.1

About

With estimated sales of 124 million records, she is one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

After signing with Interscope Records in 2007, Gaga achieved global recognition with her debut album, The Fame (2008), and its reissue, The Fame Monster (2009). The project yielded a string of successful singles, including "Just Dance", "Poker Face", and "Bad Romance", which made her one of the few artists with at least three Diamond-certified songs in the US. Her second studio album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold 1.1 million copies in the US in its first week. Its title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than a week. Following her electronic dance music-influenced third album, Artpop (2013), she pursued jazz on the album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett, and delved into soft rock on the album Joanne (2016).

Gaga also ventured into acting, gaining praise for her leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016) and the films A Star Is Born (2018) and House of Gucci (2021). Her contributions to the A Star Is Born soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first person to win an Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy Award in one year. Gaga returned to her early sound with the pop-oriented albums Chromatica (2020) and Mayhem (2025), which respectively included the number-one singles "Rain on Me" and "Die with a Smile". She also continued to explore jazz with Love for Sale (2021), her second and final album with Bennett, and the soundtrack Harlequin (2024).

Gaga has seven number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and six number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100. She is the first female artist with four singles that each sold at least 10 million copies globally and holds the record for the most-attended concert by a woman. The highest-paid female musician of 2011, she has received 16 Grammy Awards, 22 MTV Video Music Awards, 2 Golden Globe Awards, a Sports Emmy Award, and a recognition from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Gaga's philanthropy and activism focus on mental health awareness and LGBTQ rights. Her business ventures include vegan cosmetics brand Haus Labs and the non-profit Born This Way Foundation, which supports the wellness of young people.

From Wikipedia’s article on Lady Gaga, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedConvent of the Sacred Heart3
  • Date not recordedCollaborative Arts Project 213
  • Date not recordedNew York University Tisch School of the Arts music3
  • Date not recordedJohns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth3
  • Date not recordedCircle in the Square Theatre School3
  • Date not recordedLee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute3

1986–2004: Early life

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986, at Lenox Hill Hospital in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Her parents are Cynthia Louise (née Bissett), a philanthropist and business executive, and Joseph Germanotta, an Internet entrepreneur; both have Italian ancestry. According to Gaga, her parents came from lower-class families and worked hard for everything. They raised Gaga and her younger sister, Natali, in an upper-middle-class Catholic family on the Upper West Side. From age 11, Gaga attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Catholic school on the Upper East Side. She has described her high-school self as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" and somewhat insecure. She considered herself a misfit and was mocked for being provocative and eccentric.

At age four, Gaga began playing the piano when her mother insisted that she become "a cultured young woman". She took piano lessons and practiced throughout her childhood. The lessons taught her to learn music by ear, which she preferred over reading sheet music. Her parents encouraged her to pursue music and enrolled her in Creative Arts Camp. As a teenager, she played at open mic nights. She played the lead roles of Adelaide in the play Guys and Dolls and Philia in the play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Regis High School. She also studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for 10 years. Her screen debut was a background appearance in the 2000 music video for the AC/DC song "Stiff Upper Lip". Gaga unsuccessfully auditioned for New York theater productions; she appeared in a background role as a high-school student in a 2001 episode of The Sopranos titled "The Telltale Moozadell". Fan interest in that episode increased when a clip of Gaga's scene surfaced online in 2010.

In 2003, Gaga gained early admission to Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. There, she improved her songwriting skills by writing essays on art, religion, social issues, and politics, including a thesis on the pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst. In 2005, Gaga withdrew from school during the second semester of her second year to focus on her music career. That year, she also played a restaurant customer on MTV's Boiling Points, a prank reality television show.

In a 2014 interview, Gaga discussed being raped at age 19 by her producer, and undergoing emotional and physical therapy for the trauma. She later revealed that following the assault, her rapist dropped her off pregnant near her parents' house because she was sick and vomiting. Gaga has post-traumatic stress disorder which she attributes to the rape; she said the trauma has changed her as a person and will never leave her.

From Wikipedia’s article on Lady Gaga (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: composer, film actor, television director, philanthropist, television actor, voice actor, film director, singer-songwriter.7

  • Date not recordedFounded Born This Way Foundation4
  • Date not recordedFounded Haus Laboratories5
  • Date not recordedChair, 2019 MET Gala6

Known for: Stupid Love, Abracadabra, Bad Romance, The Fame, Born This Way, Telephone, Do What U Want, Poker Face, Million Reasons, Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden.8

2005–2007: Career beginnings

In 2005, Gaga recorded two songs with rapper Melle Mel for an audiobook accompanying the Cricket Casey children's novel The Portal in the Park. She also formed a band called the SGBand with some friends from NYU. They played gigs around New York and became a fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene. After the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at the Cutting Room in June, talent scout Wendy Starland recommended Gaga to music producer Rob Fusari. He collaborated with Gaga, helping her develop songs and compose new material. He said they began dating in May 2006, and claimed he was the first person to call her "Lady Gaga", which was derived from the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". According to Fusari, the name was coined when he attempted to call her "Radio Ga Ga" in a text message, and his phone's spell checker autocorrected "Radio" to "Lady". Their relationship lasted until January 2007.

Fusari and Gaga established a company called Team Lovechild, LLC to promote her career. They recorded and produced electropop tracks, sending them to music industry executives. Joshua Sarubin, the head of Artists and Repertoire at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively and, after approval from his boss Antonio "L.A." Reid, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006. She was dropped from the label three months later, a decision which Reid later said was the biggest mistake of his life. Following this, Gaga began performing at neo-burlesque shows, and said these represented freedom to her. During this time, she met the performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped mold her onstage persona. The pair began performing at downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, the Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Their live performance art piece, known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue" and billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", was a tribute to 1970s variety acts. They also performed at the 2007 Lollapalooza music festival.

Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock style of David Bowie and Queen into her songs. While Gaga and Starlight were performing, Fusari continued to develop the songs he had created with her, sending them to the producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. In November 2007, Herbert signed Gaga to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, which had been established that month. Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered her. Having served as an apprentice songwriter during an internship at Famous Music, Gaga struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.

At Interscope, the singer Akon was impressed with Gaga's singing ability when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. Akon convinced Jimmy Iovine, chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M Records (a sister company of Def Jam), to form a joint deal by having Gaga also sign with his own label KonLive Distribution, and described her as his "franchise player". According to Gaga, some radio stations found her early music too "racy", "dance-oriented", and "underground" for the mainstream market, to which she responded: "My name is Lady Gaga, I've been on the music scene for years, and I'm telling you, this is what's next."

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2008–2010: Breakthrough with The Fame and The Fame Monster

By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles to complete her debut album, The Fame, and to set up her own creative team called the Haus of Gaga, modeled on Andy Warhol's The Factory. Gaga collaborated with the songwriter-producers RedOne and Martin Kierszenbaum on The Fame, which was released on August 19, 2008 by Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by Kierszenbaum. The album reached number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK, as well as the top five in Australia and the US. Its first two singles, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", reached number one in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. "Poker Face" was also the world's best-selling single of 2009, with 9.8 million copies sold, and spent a record 83 weeks on Billboard magazine's Digital Songs chart. Three other singles, "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)", "LoveGame" and "Paparazzi", were released from the album, with "Paparazzi" reaching number one in Germany. Remixed versions of the singles from The Fame, except "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)", were included on Gaga's extended play (EP) Hitmixes in August 2009. At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, The Fame and "Poker Face" won Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Dance Recording, respectively. Gaga was the most awarded artist at the 2010 Brit Awards, winning in three categories.

Following her opening act on the Pussycat Dolls' 2009 Doll Domination Tour in Europe and Oceania, Gaga headlined her worldwide The Fame Ball Tour, which ran from March to September 2009. While traveling the globe, she wrote eight songs for The Fame Monster, a reissue of The Fame. The new songs were also released as a standalone EP on November 18, 2009. The first single, "Bad Romance", was released one month earlier and was number one in Canada and the UK, and number two in Australia, New Zealand and the US. "Telephone", with Beyoncé, followed as the second single from the EP and became Gaga's fourth UK number one. The record's third single was "Alejandro", which reached number one in Finland; its music video was deemed blasphemous by the Catholic League. Both "Telephone" and "Alejandro" reached the top five in the US. The video for "Bad Romance" became the most watched video on YouTube in April 2010. That October, Gaga became the first person with more than one billion total YouTube views.

At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won eight awards from 13 nominations, including Video of the Year for "Bad Romance". She was the most nominated artist for a single year, and the first woman to receive two nominations for Video of the Year at the same ceremony. The Fame Monster won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Bad Romance" won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone featured "Bad Romance" and its music video on their respective lists of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and "100 Greatest Music Videos of All Time" in 2021.

In 2009, Gaga spent a record 150 weeks on the UK Singles Chart and became the most downloaded female act in a year in the US, with 11.1 million downloads, earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. Worldwide, The Fame and The Fame Monster together have sold more than 15 million copies, and the latter was 2010's second best-selling album. Its success allowed Gaga to start her second worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, and release The Remix, her final record with Cherrytree Records and among the best-selling remix albums of all time. The Monster Ball Tour ran from November 2009 to May 2011 and grossed $227.4 million, making it the highest-grossing concert tour for a debut headlining artist. Concerts performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed for an HBO television special, Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden.

During this era, Gaga ventured into business, collaborating with consumer electronics company Monster Cable Products to create in-ear, jewel-encrusted headphones called Heartbeats by Lady Gaga. She also partnered with Polaroid in January 2010 as their creative director and announced a suite of photo-capture products called Grey Label. Her collaboration with her past record producer and ex-boyfriend Rob Fusari led to a lawsuit against her production team, Mermaid Music LLC. At this time, Gaga was tested borderline positive for lupus but claimed not to be affected by the symptoms and hoped to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

2011–2014: Born This Way, Artpop, and Cheek to Cheek

In February 2011, Gaga released "Born This Way", the lead single from her studio album of the same name. The song sold more than one million copies within five days, earning the Guinness World Record for the fastest selling single on iTunes. It debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts. Its second single "Judas" followed two months later, and "The Edge of Glory" served as its third single. Both reached the top 10 in the US and the UK. Her music video for "The Edge of Glory", unlike her previous work, portrays her dancing on a fire escape and walking on a lonely street, without intricate choreography and back-up dancers.

Born This Way was released on May 23, 2011, and debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.1 million copies. It sold eight million copies worldwide and received three Grammy nominations, including Gaga's third consecutive nomination for Album of the Year. Rolling Stone listed the record among "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2020. Born This Way's following singles were "You and I" and "Marry the Night", which reached numbers 6 and 29 in the US, respectively. Its track, "Bloody Mary", became a resurgent success and was released as a single in 2022. While filming the "You and I" music video, Gaga met and started dating actor Taylor Kinney in July 2011, who played her love interest. She also embarked on the Born This Way Ball tour in April 2012, which was scheduled to conclude the following March, but ended one month earlier when Gaga canceled the remaining dates due to a labral tear of her right hip that required surgery. While refunds for the cancellations were estimated to be worth $25 million, the tour grossed $183.9 million globally.

In 2011, Gaga also worked with Tony Bennett on a jazz version of "The Lady Is a Tramp", with Elton John on "Hello Hello" for the animated feature film Gnomeo & Juliet, and with The Lonely Island and Justin Timberlake on "3-Way (The Golden Rule)". On October 15, 2011, she performed an exclusive, one-off concert in Los Angeles for the "A Decade of Difference" event, celebrating the 65th birthday of former US President Bill Clinton. In November 2011, she was featured in a Thanksgiving television special titled A Very Gaga Thanksgiving, which attracted 5.7 million American viewers and spawned the release of her fourth EP, A Very Gaga Holiday. In 2012, Gaga guest-starred as an animated version of herself in an episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa Goes Gaga", and released her first fragrance, Lady Gaga Fame, followed by a second one, Eau de Gaga, in 2014.

Gaga began work on her third studio album, Artpop, in early 2012, during the Born This Way Ball tour. She crafted the album to mirror "a night at the club". In August 2013, Gaga released the album's lead single "Applause", which reached number one in Hungary, number four in the US, and number five in the UK. A lyric video for Artpop track "Aura" followed in October to accompany Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, where Gaga plays an assassin named La Chameleon. The film received generally mixed reviews and earned less than half of its $33 million budget. The second Artpop single, "Do What U Want", featured singer R. Kelly and was released later that month, topping the charts in Hungary and reaching number 13 in the US. Artpop was released on November 6, 2013, to mixed reviews. Helen Brown of The Daily Telegraph criticized Gaga for making another album about her fame and doubted the record's originality, but found it "great for dancing". The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, and sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide as of July 2014. "G.U.Y." was released as the third single in March 2014 and peaked at number 76 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Gaga hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in November 2013. After holding her second Thanksgiving Day television special on ABC, Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular, she performed a special rendition of "Do What U Want" with Christina Aguilera on the fifth season of the American reality talent show The Voice. In March 2014, Gaga had a seven-day concert residency commemorating the last performance at New York's Roseland Ballroom before its closure. Two months later, she embarked on the ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour, building on concepts from her ArtRave promotional event. Earning $83 million, the tour included cities canceled from the Born This Way Ball tour itinerary. In the meantime, Gaga split from longtime manager Troy Carter over "creative differences", and by June 2014, she and new manager Bobby Campbell joined Artist Nation, the artist management division of Live Nation Entertainment. She briefly appeared in Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and was confirmed as Versace's spring-summer 2014 ambassador with a campaign called "Lady Gaga for Versace".

In September 2014, Gaga released a collaborative jazz album with Tony Bennett titled Cheek to Cheek. The inspiration behind the album came from her friendship with Bennett, and fascination with jazz music since her childhood. He stated that Gaga is "the most talented artist I have ever met". Before the album was released, it produced the singles "Anything Goes" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love". Cheek to Cheek received generally favorable reviews; The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan praised Gaga's vocals and Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "Cheek to Cheek serves up the real thing, start to finish". The record was Gaga's third consecutive number-one album on the Billboard 200, and won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. The duo recorded the concert special Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, and embarked on the Cheek to Cheek Tour from December 2014 to August 2015.

2015–2017: American Horror Story, Joanne, and Super Bowl performances

In February 2015, Gaga became engaged to Taylor Kinney. After the lukewarm response to Artpop, Gaga began to reinvent her image and style. According to Billboard, this shift started with the release of Cheek to Cheek and the attention she received for her performance at the 87th Academy Awards, where she sang a medley of songs from The Sound of Music in a tribute to Julie Andrews. Considered one of her best performances by Billboard, it triggered more than 214,000 interactions per minute globally on Facebook. She and Diane Warren co-wrote the song "Til It Happens to You" for the documentary The Hunting Ground, which earned them a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Billboard named Gaga their 2015 Woman of the Year.

Gaga had spent much of her early life wanting to be an actress, and achieved her goal when she starred in American Horror Story: Hotel. Running from October 2015 to January 2016, Hotel is the fifth season of the television anthology horror series, American Horror Story, in which Gaga played a hotel owner named Elizabeth. At the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, Gaga received the Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film award for her work on the season. She appeared in Nick Knight's 2015 fashion film for Tom Ford's 2016 spring campaign and was guest editor for V fashion magazine's 99th issue in January 2016, which featured 16 different covers. She received Editor of the Year award at the Fashion Los Angeles Awards.

In February 2016, Gaga sang the US national anthem at Super Bowl 50, partnered with Intel and Nile Rodgers for a tribute performance to the late David Bowie at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, and sang "Til It Happens to You" at the 88th Academy Awards, where she was introduced by Joe Biden and was accompanied on-stage by 50 people who had suffered from sexual assault. Her engagement to Taylor Kinney ended in July; she later said her career had interfered with their relationship.

Gaga played a witch named Scathach in American Horror Story: Roanoke, the series' sixth season, which ran from September to November 2016. Her role in the fifth season of the show ultimately influenced her future music, prompting her to feature "the art of darkness". In September 2016, she released her fifth album's lead single, "Perfect Illusion", which topped the charts in France and reached number 15 in the US. The album, titled Joanne, was named after Gaga's late aunt, who was an inspiration for the music. It was released on October 21, 2016, and became Gaga's fourth number one album on the Billboard 200, making her the first woman to reach the US chart's summit four times in the 2010s. The album's second single, "Million Reasons", followed the next month and reached number four in the US. She later released a piano version of the album's title track in 2018, which won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance. To promote the album, Gaga embarked on the three-date Dive Bar Tour.

Gaga performed as the headlining act during the Super Bowl LI halftime show on February 5, 2017. Her performance featured a group of hundreds of lighted drones forming various shapes in the sky above Houston's NRG Stadium—the first time robotic aircraft appeared in a Super Bowl program. It attracted 117.5 million viewers in the US, exceeding the game's 111.3 million viewers and making it the third most-watched Super Bowl halftime show at the time. The performance led to a surge of 410,000 song downloads in the US for Gaga and earned her an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Special Class Program category. CBS Sports included her performance as the second best in the history of Super Bowl halftime shows. In April, Gaga headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. She also released a standalone single, "The Cure", which reached the top 10 in Australia. Four months later, Gaga began the Joanne World Tour, which she announced after the Super Bowl LI halftime show. Gaga's creation of Joanne and preparation for her halftime show performance were featured in the documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, which premiered on Netflix that September. Throughout the film, she was seen suffering from chronic pain, which was later revealed to be the effect of a long-term condition called fibromyalgia. In February 2018, it prompted Gaga to cancel the last ten shows of the Joanne World Tour, which ultimately grossed $95 million from 842,000 tickets sold.

2018–2019: A Star Is Born and Las Vegas residency

In March 2018, Gaga released a cover of Elton John's "Your Song" for his tribute album Revamp. Later that year, she starred as the struggling singer Ally in Bradley Cooper's musical romantic drama A Star Is Born, a remake of the 1937 film of the same name. The film follows Ally's relationship with singer Jackson Maine (played by Cooper), which becomes strained after her career begins to overshadow his. Cooper had approached Gaga after seeing her perform at a cancer research fundraiser. An admirer of Cooper's work, Gaga agreed to the project due to its portrayal of addiction and depression. A Star Is Born premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, and was released worldwide that October. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the critical consensus describes Gaga as "appealing" in her role. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that her ability to be "part ordinary person, part extraterrestrial celebrity empress functions at the highest level". Stephanie Zacharek of Time felt she gave a "knockout performance" and found her to be "charismatic" without her usual makeup, wigs and costumes. For the role, Gaga won the National Board of Review and Critics' Choice awards for Best Actress, in addition to receiving nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

2020–2023: Chromatica, Love for Sale, and House of Gucci

Gaga's sixth studio album, Chromatica, was released on May 29, 2020, to positive reviews. It debuted at the top of the US charts, becoming her sixth consecutive number-one album in the country, and reached the top spot in more than a dozen other territories including Australia, Canada, France, Italy and the UK. Chromatica's lead single, "Stupid Love", was released on February 28, 2020, and charted at number five in the US and the UK. The second single, "Rain on Me",

From Wikipedia’s article on Lady Gaga (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornMar 28, 1986, New York City9
  • CitizenshipUnited States10 11
  • ResidenceYonkers, Malibu, Manhattan, Upper West Side, Rivington Street, Los Angeles12
  • Children113 14

Philanthropy

After declining an invitation to appear on the single "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", because of rehearsals for her tour, to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Gaga donated the proceeds of her January 2010 Radio City Music Hall concert to the country's reconstruction relief fund. All profits from her online store that day were also donated, and Gaga announced that $500,000 was collected for the fund. Hours after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, Gaga tweeted a link to Japan Prayer Bracelets. All revenue from a bracelet she designed in conjunction with the company was donated to relief efforts; these raised $1.5 million. In June 2011, Gaga performed at MTV Japan's charity show in Makuhari Messe, which benefited the Japanese Red Cross.

In 2012, Gaga joined the campaign group Artists Against Fracking. That October, Yoko Ono gave Gaga and four other activists the LennonOno Grant for Peace in Reykjavík, Iceland. The following month, Gaga pledged to donate $1 million to the American Red Cross to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Gaga has also contributed to the fight against HIV and AIDS, focusing on educating young women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Sales have raised more than $202 million to fight HIV and AIDS.

In April 2016, Gaga joined Vice President Joe Biden at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to support his It's On Us campaign as he traveled to colleges on behalf of the organization, which has seen 250,000 students from more than 530 colleges sign a pledge of solidarity and activism. Two months later, Gaga attended the 84th Annual US Conference of Mayors in Indianapolis where together with the Dalai Lama she talked about the power of kindness and how to make the world a more compassionate place.

In April 2020, Gaga curated the televised benefit concert, One World: Together at Home, a collaboration with Global Citizen to benefit the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. The special raised $127 million, which according to Forbes "puts it on par with the other legendary fundraiser, Live Aid, as the highest grossing charity concert in history." In recognition of her activism for the Black Lives Matter movement during the 2020 George Floyd protests, Gaga received the King Center's Yolanda Denise King High Ground Award in January 2021. In her acceptance speech, she denounced racism and white supremacy and addressed her social responsibility as a high-profile artist and white woman.

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Born This Way Foundation

In 2012, Gaga launched the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF), a non-profit organization that focuses on youth empowerment. It has been named after her 2011 single and album. Media proprietor Oprah Winfrey, writer Deepak Chopra, and US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the foundation's inauguration at Harvard University. The foundation's original funding included $1.2 million from Gaga, $500,000 from the MacArthur Foundation, and $850,000 from Barneys New York. In July 2012, the BTWF partnered with Office Depot for a series of limited edition back-to-school products, with 25% of its sales going towards the foundation, for a guaranteed donation of $1 million. The foundation's initiatives have included the "Born Brave Bus" that followed Gaga on tour as a youth drop-in center as an initiative against bullying.

In October 2015, at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Gaga joined 200 high school students, policy makers, and academic officials, including Peter Salovey, to discuss ways to recognize and channel emotions for positive outcomes. In 2016, the foundation partnered with Intel, Vox Media, and Recode to fight online harassment. The sales revenue of the 99th issue of the V magazine, which featured Gaga and Kinney, was donated to the foundation. Gaga and Elton John released the clothing and accessories line Love Bravery at Macy's in May 2016. 25% of each purchase benefited the BTWF and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Gaga partnered with Starbucks for a week in June 2017 with the "Cups of Kindness" campaign, where the company donated 25 cents from some of the beverages sold to the foundation. She also appeared in a video by Staples Inc. to raise funds for the foundation and DonorsChoose.org.

On the 2018 World Kindness Day, Gaga partnered with the foundation to bring food and relief to a Red Cross shelter for people who have been forced to evacuate homes due to the California wildfires. The foundation also partnered with Starbucks and SoulCycle to thank California firefighters for their relief work during the crisis. Gaga had to previously evacuate her own home during the Woolsey Fire which spread through parts of Malibu. In March 2019, she penned a letter to supporters of the BTWF, announcing the launch of a new pilot program for a teen mental health first aid project with the National Council for Behavioral Health. Gaga revealed her personal struggles with mental health in her letter and how she was able to get support which saved her life: "I know what it means to have someone support me and understand what I'm going through, and every young person in the world should have someone to turn to when they're hurting. It saved my life, and it will save theirs."

In September 2020, Gaga released an anthology book, Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindness and Community, featuring fifty-one stories about kindness, bravery, and resilience from young people all over the world collected by the BTWF, and introduced by herself. She promoted it with a 21 days of kindness challenge on her social media, using the "BeKind21" hashtag. In 2021, Gaga collaborated with the Champagne house Dom Pérignon to benefit the BTWF by releasing a limited edition of Rosé Vintage 2005 bottles along with a sculpture designed by her. The 110 exclusive pieces were sold at private sales, and the profit of $570,000 was donated to the foundation. On the 2021 World Kindness Day, Gaga released a 30-minute special, titled The Power of Kindness, as part of the foundation's Channel Kindness program, in which together with a mental health expert and a group of eleven young people, she explored the connection between kindness and mental health.

From Wikipedia’s article on Lady Gaga (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Politics

LGBTQ advocacy

A bisexual woman, Gaga has supported LGBTQ rights worldwide. She has attributed much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered a gay icon. Early in her career, Gaga had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated: "The turning point for me was the gay community." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBTQ marketing company which worked with her label Interscope at the time, in the liner notes of The Fame. One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBTQ television network Logo.

Gaga spoke at the 2009 National Equality March in Washington, D.C., to support the LGBTQ rights movement. She attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four gay and lesbian former members of the United States Armed Forces who had been unable to serve openly under the US military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which banned open homosexuality in the military. Gaga urged her fans via YouTube to contact their senators in an effort to overturn the policy. In September 2010, she spoke at a Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's rally in Portland, Maine. Following this event, The Advocate named her a "fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians.

Gaga appeared at Europride, an international event dedicated to LGBTQ pride, in Rome in June 2011. She criticized the poor state of gay rights in many European countries and described gay people as "revolutionaries of love". Later that year, she was referenced by teenager Jamey Rodemeyer in the hours prior to his death, with Rodemeyer having tweeted "@ladygaga bye mother monster, thank you for all you have done, paws up forever". Rodemeyer's suicide prompted Gaga to meet with then-President Barack Obama to address anti-gay bullying in American schools. She later endorsed him during the 2012 US presidential election. In 2011, Gaga was also ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church Monastery allowing her to officiate the wedding of two female friends.

In June 2016, during a vigil held in Los Angeles for victims of the attack at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Gaga read aloud the names of the 49 people killed in the attack, and gave a speech. She also appeared in Human Rights Campaign's tribute video to the victims of the attack. Following Joan Jett, Gaga was the second of nearly 200 musicians and music industry executives to sign Billboard's Open Letter on Gun Violence, demanding that Congress enact universal background checks on all gun buyers. She subsequently supported the 2018 March for Our Lives gun-control rally in Washington, D.C. Gaga opposed the presidency of Donald Trump and his military transgender ban. She supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. In 2018, a leaked memo from Trump's office revealed that his administration wanted to change the legal definition of sex to exclude transgender Americans. Gaga was one of the many celebrities to condemn him and spread the #WontBeErased campaign to her Twitter followers.

In January 2019, during one of her Enigma shows, she criticized Vice President Mike Pence for his wife Karen Pence working at an evangelical Christian school where LGBTQ people are turned away, calling him "the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian". Gaga also stated: "I am a Christian woman, and what I do know about Christianity is that we bear no prejudice, and everybody is welcome". Gaga made a congratulatory speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the LGBTQ community's accomplishments at WorldPride NYC 2019 outside the Stonewall Inn, birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. Following Trump's win in the 2024 US presidential election, in which Gaga endorsed Kamala Harris, she voiced her support for the transgender community after his rollback of their protections.

From Wikipedia’s article on Lady Gaga (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • 2020MTV Europe Music Award for Best Artist15
  • 2020MTV Europe Music Award for Best US Act15
  • 2020MTV Video Music Awards/Artist of the Year15 16
  • 2019Academy Award for Best Original Song for Shallow15
  • 2019BAFTA Award for Best Original Music for Shallow15
  • 2019Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for Shallow15
  • 2019Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Shallow15
  • 2019Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance for Joanne15
  • 2019Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media for Shallow15
  • 2017American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist15
More awards (26)
  • 2016Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film for American Horror Story: Hotel15
  • 2015Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Cheek to Cheek15
  • 2015Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Cheek to Cheek15
  • 2012LennonOno Grant for Peace15
  • 2011Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Bad Romance15
  • 2011Grammy Award for Best Music Video for Bad Romance15
  • 2011Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for The Fame Monster15
  • 2011MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video for Born This Way15
  • 2011MTV Video Music Award for Best Video with a Social Message for Born This Way15
  • 2010American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist15
  • 2010BET Award for Video of the Year for Video Phone15
  • 2010Echo Pop Award for the Hit of the Year15
  • 2010Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album for The Fame15
  • 2010Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for Poker Face15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography for Bad Romance15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Collaboration for Telephone15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Dance Video for Bad Romance15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction for Bad Romance15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing for Bad Romance15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video for Bad Romance15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop Video for Bad Romance15
  • 2010MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for Bad Romance15
  • 2009MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction for Paparazzi15
  • 2009MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist15
  • 2009MTV Video Music Award for Best Visual Effects for Paparazzi15
  • Date not recordedThe Record of the Year15

Planes and yachts

A position is the aircraft’s or vessel’s, not the person’s. Being on board isn’t confirmed.

Flight data: adsb.lol (ODbL) & ADSB.fi. Flights, photos and icons: CelebPlanes. Maps: Esri.

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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