Lady Gaga American Singer With 61.2M Instagram Followers

Early life

Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on 28 March 1986 in Manhattan, New York City, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, is a philanthropist and business executive, and her father, Joseph, works as an internet entrepreneur. She grew up on the Upper West Side with a younger sister, Natali, and attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart from the age of 11.

She began piano lessons at four and learned to play by ear. As a teenager she performed at open mic nights and studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. In 2003 she was admitted early to Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music programme at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She left in 2005, partway through her second year, to concentrate on music.

Career

In 2005 Germanotta formed a band with friends from university and played clubs on Manhattan's Lower East Side. She signed with Def Jam Recordings in September 2006 but was dropped three months later. She then performed in neo-burlesque shows and worked with the performance artist Lady Starlight and wrote songs for other artists under a publishing deal. In November 2007 she signed with Streamline Records, an Interscope imprint, and also entered a joint arrangement with Akon's KonLive label.

Her debut album, The Fame, came out on 19 August 2008. Its singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" both reached number one in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Fame Monster, a collection of eight new songs, followed in November 2009 and included "Bad Romance", "Telephone" with Beyoncé, and "Alejandro". Her Monster Ball Tour ran from November 2009 to May 2011 and earned $227.4 million.

Born This Way was released on 23 May 2011 and entered the Billboard 200 at number one, selling 1.1 million copies in its first week in the United States. She released Artpop in November 2013, and in September 2014 she issued the jazz album Cheek to Cheek with Tony Bennett. Joanne followed on 21 October 2016. She sang the national anthem at Super Bowl 50 in 2016 and headlined the Super Bowl LI halftime show in 2017.

Gaga also became an actress. She played a hotel owner in American Horror Story: Hotel, broadcast from October 2015 to January 2016, and returned to the series in Roanoke as a witch named Scathach. In 2018 she starred as Ally in Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born. She co-wrote and produced much of its soundtrack with Cooper, including the single "Shallow". She played Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott's House of Gucci (2021) and Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, also known as Harley Quinn, in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).

Chromatica, released on 29 May 2020, returned to dance-pop and produced "Rain on Me" with Ariana Grande. She and Bennett released a second album, Love for Sale, in September 2021. She co-wrote "Hold My Hand" for Top Gun: Maverick (2022), toured stadiums in 2022, and in 2023 was appointed co-chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. In July 2024 she performed at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris. Her duet with Bruno Mars, "Die with a Smile", was released on 16 August 2024. Harlequin, a companion album to the Joker sequel, followed in September 2024, and Mayhem on 7 March 2025, which debuted at number one in the United States. A free concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in 2025 drew an estimated 2.1 to 2.5 million people, and her Mayhem Ball tour, which ended in April 2026, grossed $362.9 million.

Recognition

Gaga won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Shallow", and the same song earned her a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Grammy in the same year. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for A Star Is Born. She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for American Horror Story: Hotel in 2016.

Her Grammy wins include Best Dance/Electronic Album for The Fame, Best Pop Vocal Album for The Fame Monster, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Cheek to Cheek, and, in 2026, Best Pop Vocal Album for Mayhem. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards she won eight awards, among them Video of the Year for "Bad Romance".

Personal life

Gaga supports mental health awareness and LGBTQ rights, and she is the co-founder of the Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on young people's wellbeing. She launched the cosmetics line Haus Laboratories in 2019. She became engaged to Michael Polansky in April 2024, and in June 2026 the couple had a daughter.