Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanott, is not an over-night sensation. She has infact been singing since she was 14; her parents would take her to open mic nights as she was too young to go on her own.‘People who think I’m an overnight sensation are journalists who haven’t done their research’She used to do a performance art piece with her friend Lady Starlight that included her go-go dancing in a bikini and an Indian headress to Iron Maiden and setting hairspray cans on fire.‘My parents are generally very sup-portive, until they saw this and they thought i had lost my mind’. She has always been a huge fan of fashion, she used to make her own clothing when she had no money, which included sticking rhinestones onto 3 dollar bras and wearing them during her performances, all the people she worked with in New York

work with now, her style team is called ‘Haus of Gaga’, their job is to create her clothes, stage props and her hair styles. She wears clothes that are not necessarily fashionable or comfortable. Glam rockers such as David Bowie and Queen inspire her style and music; her name is actu-ally based on the Queen song ‘Radio Gaga’ She wears many different outfits by various designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Phillip Tracey.‘this outfit was made from a strippers outfit i found in a store’ referring to the red lace costume she wore at the 2009 VMA’s. Lady Gaga is a known as a gay icon and thanks her early success to her gay fan base and dedicated her ‘best new artist’ speech to ‘God and to Gays’ during the 2009 VMA’s. She also made a speech at the National Equality March in October 2009 and ended the speech with ‘Bless God, Bless the Gays’. Her music is all

about wanting her fans to be free and wants them to be who they want to be, rather than fitting in, when she was in high school she always felt like a freak and didn’t fit in. Her album ‘The Fame Monster’ released in November 2009, featuring 8 new tracks that were all written whilst she was on the road during her first tour ‘The Fame Ball’ she felt lonley on the road and encountered sev-eral monsters on the way which are all represented by the songs on the album. It was confirmed by Lady Gaga her self that the Ballard ‘Speechless’ is about her father and how she wanted him to get open heart surgery to fix a heart problem he had suffered from for about 15 years.Lady Gaga recenlty confirmed that she would be touring again with ‘The Monster Ball’ of 56 dates which start-ed on the 27th of November 2009.

Lets play a LOVE game with Lady Gaga.....Photographer: Hedi SlimaneWords: Rhiannon Heywood

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