New: Lady GaGa

Stefani Joanne Germanotta (born March 20, 1986), best known by her stage name Lady GaGa, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Born in Yonkers, New York, to an italian family, Gaga is known for work in the electronica genre, and has been nominated for a Grammy Award.

 At age 20 she began working for Interscope Records as a songwriter, penning songs for pop acts such as the Pussycat Dolls, and has been asked to write for a series of Interscope artists.

Throughout 2008 GaGa finalized tracks for her debut album, The Fame. She explained that the album is "about how anyone can feel famous". To date, the album spawned the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". Both singles topped the Canadian Hot 100.

She remembers singing into a plastic tape recorder to the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson as a little girl. By age four, Lady GaGa had taught herself to play the piano by ear. When she was a teenager, she penned her first song. By the age of 14, she was playing open-mic nights at New York’s Bitter End. She was a fixture in the productions of the Regis High School Repertory, including the roles of Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anna Andreyevna in The Government Inspector, Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Alice More in A Man for All Seasons. She also sang in the productions of the Regis Jazz Band.

Germanotta started hanging out downtown, performing in the Lower East Side club scene with previous bands, Mackin Pulsifer and SGBand. Finding herself surrounded by singers who all wrote the same style of music, she decided to do something fresh and provocative in the rock'n roll underground: pop music. In 2006, she started working with music producer Rob Fusari, with whom she wrote several of her early downtown hits like "Beautiful Dirty Rich", "Dirty Ice Cream" and "Disco Heaven". It was when she performed the song "Again, Again" for Fusari that she created the stage name, Lady GaGa (which is a reference to the song "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen).

Lady GaGa was originally signed to Def Jam when she was nineteen years old but was dropped after three months. In early 2007, she was offered a deal with Interscope, hired as a songwriter and partnered with singer/producer/songwriter Akon. While working on demo tracks for an artist signed to Konvict Muzik, Tami Chynn, Akon would have GaGa go into the booth to lay down reference vocals. Realizing her singing talent and after listening to her demo recordings, Akon later signed her to a joint deal with Kon Live.

During this time, GaGa met the similarly named Lower East Side DJ/go-go dancer/performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped Lady GaGa create her onstage fashions. The pair collaborated on many projects such as "Lady GaGa and The Starlight Revue"- a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts which featured Lady GaGa on synth, Lady Starlight spinning beats, choreographed "go-go" moves, shiny disco balls, and hairspray lit on fire and sprayed into the audience.

It was through her affiliation with Akon that GaGa started to work on her own new material for her debut album with producer RedOne. Already having a solid selection of electro-glam, David Bowie-esque, Queen inspired songs, GaGa wanted to mix her retro dance beats with urban melodies, a pop chorus and still retain a rock 'n' roll edge. The first song they produced was "Boys, Boys, Boys," a track inspired by Mötley Crüe's hit "Girls, Girls, Girls" mashed with AC/DC's "T.N.T."

Building upon the online hype, Lady GaGa returned to her club roots, touring the world throughout the summer with her with two dancers, Dina and Coco and her new DJ/producer Space Cowboy, who is also signed to Interscope. Her performances are accompanied by her infamous 'Disco Stick' and more recently a pair of metallic sunglasses with digital screens as lenses which play video content. Her myspace page showcases a weekly web video entitled: "Transmission Gaga-Vision" which highlight performances and appearances made by GaGa. Shot in grainy black and white and featuring the performer talking candidly in bed with her dancers, the videos are an obvious homage to the film Truth or Dare which documented the American entertainer Madonna on her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.

In August 2007, GaGa and The Starlight Revue performed at Lollapalooza, where the Ladies entertained the crowd with their performance art piece. While walking around the concert grounds, Lady GaGa received an indecent exposure citation from a bicycle cop for wearing "hot pants".

In October 2007, GaGa and Lady Starlight combined their love of performance art, burlesque pop, rock'n roll, sequined panties, 1970's Glam Rock and 1980's Heavy Metal into a weekly party, "New York Street Revival and Trash Dance." It was here that Lady GaGa would debut not only her new bleach-blonde hair but also test drive her revamped stage concept: performing choreographed dance routines accompanied by two female backup dancers while DJ Lady Starlight played the backing track.

By 2008, Lady GaGa had relocated to Los Angeles, working closely with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame. "The Fame is about how anyone can feel famous,” she explains. "Pop culture is art. It doesn’t make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it’s a sharable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle."

The Fame was released in August in Canada, Australia and some European countries, peaking at number five in Canada and seven in Australia. On October 28, 2008, Gaga released The Fame in the U.S. The album has reached at number 17 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 24,000 units. It also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. The album received mostly positive reviews from critics. The New York Post called her the "future of pop" and Billboard magazine praised the album as full of hits. However, ArtistDirect.com said that, musically, she has "never taken a single footstep off the path already trod".

The album's lead single, "Just Dance", had reached number one in Australia and Canada. The single also started to gain radio airplay in the U.S. by October, and has so far peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single Poker Face had reached number one in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Poker Face has also started to climb the charts in the U.S. currently standing at number eighty one. On December 5, 2008 she was added to the BBC Sound of 2009 longlist. In the fall of 2008 Haus of GaGa turned their focus upon the USA market, with Lady Gaga going on tour with fellow Interscope group, the reformed New Kids on the Block. Collaborating with New Kids on the Block, Lady GaGa is a featured guest on the song "Big Girl Now" off their new album, The Block. To coincide with her newest releases, ABC commissioned a video promo uniting GaGa's song "Beautiful Dirty Rich" with their similarly-titled hit show Dirty Sexy Money. Lady GaGa recently toured with New Kids on the Block as their opening act.