Lady Gaga's Bio

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986, in Yonkers, New York, to Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta. She has a younger sister, Natali. She started to play the piano at the age of 4, and wrote her first piano ballad at the age of 13. Gaga was granted an early admission to the Tisch School of Arts at the New York University at the age of 17 – she was one of 20 students in the world who received this honor - studying music and improving her songwriting skills. She later withdrew from school to search for inspiration. Gaga took three jobs to be work on her performance-art acts. In 2005, Gaga was signed to Def Jam Records for a few months before being dropped. After that, she started her own performances in clubs and venues in the Lower East Side in New York, where she began experimenting with her fashion skills. In 2007, Gaga began working as a songwriter at Interscope Records for singers such as Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls. R&B singer Akon discovered her talents while she was performing at a show she called “Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue”, which she had created to make herself more popular. Akon signed Gaga to his part of Interscope Records, Kon Live, under which Gaga wrote and recorded her first album, The Fame, in 2007 and 2008, while also partnering with RedOne. The Fame was a worldwide hit, which made Gaga and her team, Haus of Gaga, gain international popularity. She was the first artist to pass the 5 million sold copies mark with her first two singles. The Fame went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide, giving Gaga six Grammy nominations and two wins, along with multiple other awards. Her next album, The Fame Monster, was controversial, as Gaga was attacked by the Catholic League for her offensive use of God. The album was a hit anyway, being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for a shipment of a million copies. Gaga’s third album, Born This Way, was a way of providing confidence to people who were had tough lives because of their sexuality. It became an international hit, leading the billboard charts and having sold more than 1 million copies in the first week in the US. Gaga’s fourth album is in the works, as she is continuing to write songs while going on her worldwide tour, the Born This Way Ball, which began on April 27, 2012 in Seoul, South Korea.