Biographie

Often gives empowering speeches during shows to her fans about the importance of self-confidence and 'being whoever you want to be'.

Constant reinvention of her appearance

Futuristic, highly fashionable/controversial outfits

She carries a glow-in-the-dark disco stick during performances

Refers to all her fans as Little Monsters

Gaga's manager, without consulting her, denied permission to "Weird Al" Yankovic, when he asked for permission to parody her song "Born This Way". Gaga only discovered this when one of her close friends showed her the YouTube video of the parody Yankovic had just uploaded to his account, called "Perform This Way", after having gone viral via Twitter. Her manager forced Yankovic to go through (at his own expense) the process of writing, recording, mixing and mastering the song, all while Yankovic was on tour in Australia, prior to denying permission to him. Yankovic felt that if he had to jump through all those hoops, it should still be heard, if not on his album, then online. When Gaga finished watching the video, she personally called Yankovic, and emphatically overruled her manager. Gaga stated that she was never told he had even reached out to her, and would have given him permission on the spot. She also said she was a huge fan of his, she loved what she had heard in the video he had uploaded and felt it was "very empowering" and "a rite of passage" to be parodied by Yankovic, and to release the song on his album as he originally planned. This came just in time, since pulling the parody would have meant delaying Yankovic's album by several weeks or months. Both Gaga and Yankovic agreed to donate proceeds and royalties from the parody to the Human Rights Campaign.

She learned how to play the piano at the age of four, wrote her first piano ballad at 13, and began performing at open mic nights by the age of 14.

At seventeen, she was one of twenty people in the world to have gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Her stage name, Lady Gaga, is a reference to the song "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen.

Bleached her hair blonde in light of the fact that she was being mistaken for Amy Winehouse by interviewers while trying to make it big.

[on Donatella Versace] She's iconic and powerful, yet people throw darts at her. She's definitely provocative.

Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show.

I was the arty girl, the theatre chick. I dressed differently and I came from a different social class from the other girls. I was more of an average schoolgirl with a cork.

[on her style] My grandmother is basically blind, but she can make out the lighter parts, like my skin and hair. She says, "I can see you, because you have no pants on." So I'll continue to wear no pants so that my grandma can see me.

You must never ever let a guy know how much you like him, because then he'll run in the other direction ... Well, I just sign that when you don't play hard to get, if you're too easy or you come off too eager, they run away so you gotta keep your pokerface on.