109 Fun Facts About Lady Gaga

What is Lady Gaga's real first name?

Stefani Germanotta left NYU's Tisch School in her second year to focus on music.

Lady Gaga's stage name came from a song by which band?

Queen's 'Radio Ga Ga' inspired the name, and producer Rob Fusari claimed his phone's spell check turned 'Radio' into 'Lady' in a text.

Gaga and Diane Warren wrote 'Til It Happens to You' for a documentary about what?

Campus sexual assault is the subject of The Hunting Ground, and when Gaga sang the song at the 2016 Oscars, dozens of survivors joined her onstage.

In 2006 Gaga was signed to, and then quickly dropped by, which record label?

Def Jam Recordings let her go, and years later she turned the day she was dropped into the story of her 'Marry the Night' video.

Which music executive called dropping Gaga 'the biggest mistake I ever made in my life'?

L.A. Reid had approved signing her before he changed his mind and let her go.

Gaga modeled her creative team, the Haus of Gaga, on which pop artist's studio collective?

Andy Warhol's Factory was the template when she moved to Los Angeles to finish The Fame and gathered designers and artists to build her shows.

Which Gaga single was the world's best-selling single of 2009?

Poker Face sold 9.8 million copies in 2009, and Gaga said the song is about being with a man while fantasizing about a woman.

Which 2011 Gaga song went viral in 2022 when fans set Jenna Ortega's Wednesday dance to it?

Bloody Mary isn't in the show: the scene uses The Cramps' 'Goo Goo Muck', and fans swapped in Gaga's song on TikTok.

Gaga first wrote 'Telephone' for which singer's 2008 album, before recording it herself?

Britney Spears turned it down for Circus, and a demo said to feature her vocals leaked online in 2010.

Interscope first refused one of The Fame Monster's two covers because it looked too what?

Gothic was the label's worry, but Gaga won Interscope over, and both covers were shot by photographer Hedi Slimane.

Which song was The Fame Monster's lead single?

Bad Romance came first, and Gaga premiered it at Alexander McQueen's Paris Fashion Week show before its release.

Gaga's documentary Five Foot Two showed her struggling with chronic pain from which condition?

Fibromyalgia was the diagnosis she revealed as the film came out, and in 2018 severe pain forced her to cancel the rest of her Joanne World Tour.

Gaga's meat dress partly protested which US military policy?

Don't ask, don't tell was repealed in December 2010, three months after Gaga rallied against it in Portland, Maine.

To display Gaga's meat dress, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hired what kind of specialist?

Taxidermist Sergio Vigilato found the beef had begun to decompose, so he preserved it and dyed it dark red.

Who handed Gaga her Video of the Year award while she was wearing the meat dress?

Gaga joked she never thought she would be asking Cher to hold her meat purse.

Born This Way's million-copy first week got a boost when which retailer sold the album for 99 cents?

Amazon sold it at that price for two days as a loss leader, paying full wholesale on every copy, and moved more than 440,000 downloads.

The Born This Way album cover shows Gaga fused with what?

A motorcycle makes up half her body on the cover, which Gaga revealed on Twitter weeks before the album's release.

Critics compared Gaga's 'Born This Way' to which Madonna hit?

Express Yourself was the song critics heard in it, and Madonna later mashed the two together in rehearsals for her MDNA Tour.

Which E Street Band member played on Gaga's album Born This Way?

Clarence Clemons plays the sax solo on 'The Edge of Glory', and he joined Gaga to play it live on the 2011 American Idol finale.

What is the name of the male alter ego Gaga performed as at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards?

Jo Calderone was a way to explore what she was looking for in men, Gaga said, and also what she was maybe lacking in herself.

Which artist created the Artpop album cover, featuring a nude sculpture of Gaga with a blue gazing ball?

Jeff Koons also built a larger-than-life version of the sculpture, and Gaga performed in front of it at her artRave launch party.

Gaga played a character called La Chameleon in which Robert Rodriguez film?

Machete Kills was promoted with her Artpop song 'Aura', whose lyric video is built from scenes of the film.

Which Artpop track was pulled from streaming in 2019 after the documentary Surviving R. Kelly?

Do What U Want featured R. Kelly, and when Gaga pulled it, she said its title showed how explicitly twisted her thinking was at the time.

Which 2014 album with Gaga made Tony Bennett the oldest living act to top the Billboard 200?

Cheek to Cheek was made to show Gaga's young fans those old standards, Bennett said, and it went straight to number one.

Gaga's first recording with Tony Bennett, 'The Lady Is a Tramp', appeared on which of his albums?

Duets II paired Bennett with 17 stars, and after their song together he and Gaga began talking about recording a whole jazz album.

Protests by hardliners forced the cancellation of Gaga's 2012 Born This Way Ball concert in which country?

Indonesia's police would permit the Jakarta show only if Gaga toned her act down, and she canceled it rather than agree.

Every song on Love for Sale, Gaga's second album with Tony Bennett, was written by which songwriter?

Cole Porter wrote all of it, and Bennett recorded the album after an Alzheimer's diagnosis that his family kept secret for four years.

Gaga's aunt Joanne, namesake of her 2016 album, died at 19 from complications of which disease?

Lupus complications took Joanne's life in 1974, more than a decade before Gaga was born, and Gaga has the date tattooed on her arm.

Who served alongside Gaga as executive producer of Joanne?

Mark Ronson later helped write 'Shallow' for A Star Is Born, and the song won the Golden Globe for best original song.

Where was Gaga standing when her Super Bowl LI halftime show opened?

The roof of NRG Stadium was her perch, and she then appeared to leap from it down into the arena to start the show.

Which company supplied the light-show drones for Gaga's Super Bowl LI halftime show?

Intel's drones weren't flying live: the swarm segment was filmed days earlier.

What did Gaga do just before leaving the stage to end her Super Bowl LI halftime show?

Dropped her microphone to cap the final song, and as she went off the stage, a football was tossed to her.

Bradley Cooper cast Gaga in A Star Is Born after seeing her sing which song at a charity event?

La Vie en rose won Cooper over at that fundraiser, and when he then visited her Malibu home, they sang together at her piano.

Which singer was in talks to star when Clint Eastwood planned to direct A Star Is Born?

Beyonce's pregnancy stalled that 2011 version of the project.

Besides 'Shallow', which A Star Is Born song won Gaga a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media?

The soundtrack won her four Grammys in total.

Besides songs, what fills 15 tracks of the A Star Is Born soundtrack?

Dialogue clips from the film sit between the songs, so the album retraces the story of Jackson and Ally.

In House of Gucci, who played Maurizio Gucci opposite Gaga's Patrizia Reggiani?

Adam Driver played Maurizio, whose ex-wife Patrizia had a hitman shoot him dead outside his office in 1995.

Who directed House of Gucci?

Ridley Scott was first attached to a Gucci film in 2006, and in 2009 the family said it didn't want the movie made.

What did Gaga keep up for nine months, even off camera, to play Patrizia Reggiani?

An Italian accent was part of her living as Reggiani for a year and a half, a method that took a mental toll on her.

Which K-pop group features on the Chromatica track 'Sour Candy'?

Blackpink performed it live at The Show, their 2021 livestream concert.

Who duets with Gaga on the number-one single 'Rain on Me'?

Ariana Grande joined her to sing it at the 2020 VMAs, and both kept face masks on while performing.

At the 2015 Oscars, Gaga sang a medley honoring which film?

The Sound of Music was marking 50 years, and its star Julie Andrews joined Gaga onstage afterward, the night's most-discussed moment on social media.

Gaga's Hollywood Hills home studio, where much of Chromatica was recorded, was previously owned by which musician?

Frank Zappa built it into his home in 1979 so he could work whenever he wanted, with complete freedom.

Mayhem was recorded at whose Shangri-La studio in Malibu?

Andrew Watt, Cirkut and Gesaffelstein were among the producers.

The Mayhem track 'Zombieboy' is a tribute to which heavily tattooed model?

Rick Genest, tattooed as a living skeleton, was nicknamed Zombie Boy, and Gaga cast him in her 'Born This Way' video.

Who duets with Gaga on 'Die with a Smile'?

Bruno Mars showed her the song late one night, and Gaga wrote out its chords and played it with him; it became Spotify's top song of 2025.

At the 68th Grammy Awards, 'Abracadabra' won which category?

Best Dance Pop Recording went to it, and later that night Gaga performed it as a rock number from behind a keyboard.

Gaga's May 2025 concert drew over two million people, a record crowd for a female artist, to which Rio beach?

Copacabana's crowd was the target of a bomb plot that police said they foiled, arresting two people accused of planning to attack LGBTQ fans.

What do Gaga's fans, the Little Monsters, call her in return?

Mother Monster is her fans' name for her, and in 2010 she had 'Little Monsters' tattooed on what she called 'the arm that holds my mic'.

Gaga co-founded the Born This Way Foundation in 2012 with which family member?

Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra spoke at its launch at Harvard.

What breed were the two pets stolen from Gaga in a 2021 Hollywood shooting?

French bulldogs Koji and Gustav came back two days later, but the woman who brought them to police was among five people later arrested.

In Joker: Folie a Deux, Gaga played which DC Comics character?

Harley Quinn, called Lee in the film, inspired her companion album Harlequin, released a week before the movie flopped.

Gaga co-wrote 'Hold My Hand' and worked on the score for which 2022 film?

Top Gun: Maverick weaves the song's melody through its score as a love theme, and Tom Cruise said it 'became the heartbeat of the film'.

At which 2024 event did Gaga sing the cabaret number Mon truc en plumes?

The Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Paris was the stage, and organizers asked for the Zizi Jeanmaire number so she could honor French art and music.

In which Manhattan neighbourhood was Gaga raised by her Catholic Italian-American parents?

She grew up on the Upper West Side and began playing piano at four at her parents' urging.

Which camera company named Gaga its creative director in January 2010?

Polaroid unveiled her Grey Label line at CES a year later, including a mobile photo printer she helped design.

Gaga and Elton John recorded 'Hello Hello' for which 2011 animated film?

Gnomeo & Juliet kept the Elton John and Gaga duet of 'Hello Hello' on screen only; the soundtrack version features John alone.

Which performance artist helped mold Gaga's onstage persona during her neo-burlesque days?

Lady Starlight and Gaga's early club act featured homemade pyro, including hairspray cans set alight.

Gaga's screen debut was a background appearance in a 2000 music video for which band?

On AC/DC's 'Stiff Upper Lip' shoot she was told not to headbang so the video would look modern, as she told Brian Johnson on Carpool Karaoke in 2024.

Lady Gaga appeared at age 15 as a background schoolgirl in a 2001 episode of which HBO drama?

The Sopranos used her as a high-school student in The Telltale Moozadell, and the scene drew fresh attention nine years later once she was a star.

The 128-carat Tiffany Diamond that Lady Gaga wore to the 2019 Oscars was earlier worn by which actress?

Audrey Hepburn wore the yellow diamond in publicity photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany's, mounted in a ribbon necklace by Jean Schlumberger.

Biologists named a genus of 19 species of which plants Gaga in honour of Lady Gaga?

Ferns in the genus Gaga were named by Duke University biologists, who cited her support of equality and individual expression.

Lady Gaga voiced a cartoon version of herself in a 2012 season finale of which long-running animated series?

The Simpsons had her pass through the family's home town by train on her way to a concert, in the last episode of the show's twenty-third season.

Lady Gaga sings on Sweet Sounds of Heaven, with Stevie Wonder on keyboards, from which band's album Hackney Diamonds?

The Rolling Stones recorded it while Gaga was working on film music in an adjacent studio, and critics likened her vocal to Merry Clayton's on Gimme Shelter.

Lady Gaga's first perfume, Fame, launched in 2012 with a liquid of which unusual colour that sprays clear?

Black fluid stood for the destructive side of fame, as did the poisonous belladonna listed among the scent's notes.

At the 2016 Grammy Awards, Lady Gaga performed a medley tribute with Nile Rodgers to which late rock star?

David Bowie had died the month before, and the tribute ran from Space Oddity through Let's Dance to Heroes.

Which filmmaker directed the music video for Lady Gaga's 2025 song The Dead Dance, featured in a Netflix series?

Tim Burton filmed it on an island in Mexico, his first music video since one for The Killers in 2012.

Which award did Lady Gaga win in 2016 for playing the Countess in American Horror Story: Hotel?

A Golden Globe for best actress in a miniseries or TV film went to her Countess, a fashion icon who owns the Hotel Cortez.

Lady Gaga sang Smelly Cat in the 2021 Friends reunion special alongside which original cast member?

Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe, the character who wrote the song, and Gaga turned up dressed as Phoebe to sing it with her.

Which instrument did Lady Gaga begin playing at age four, long before her teenage open mic nights?

Piano lessons started at four, at a parent's insistence that she grow up to be a cultured young woman.

Which surname was Lady Gaga born with, one she shares with her younger sister Natali?

Germanotta comes from her father Joseph, an internet entrepreneur, and she later fronted a college group with friends called the SGBand.

Where was Lady Gaga studying, at the Tisch School of the Arts, when she left during her second year in 2005?

New York University had granted her early admission in 2003 to Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music school within Tisch.

Which singer signed Lady Gaga to his own label after hearing her record a reference vocal for him?

Akon was so impressed that he persuaded Interscope chief Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal, and he called her his franchise player.

Which festival did Lady Gaga headline in 2017 as a last-minute replacement, returning as headliner in 2025?

Coachella needed a 2017 headliner when the booked star withdrew because of her pregnancy, and Gaga used the set to debut a new single, The Cure.

Lady Gaga earned two Academy Award nominations for A Star Is Born in 2019; which category did she win?

Best Original Song went to Shallow, which she co-wrote, while the acting prize she was also up for went to Olivia Colman.

What is the first name of the waitress and singer-songwriter Lady Gaga plays in A Star Is Born?

Ally is new to this telling of the story: the 1954 version called its rising star Esther.

On her 2009 Fame Ball Tour, Lady Gaga wore a see-through dress made entirely of plastic what?

Bubbles made up the entire dress, one of the outfits Time cited, along with the raw meat one, when naming her an all-time fashion icon.

Which rapper was due to co-headline the Fame Kills tour with Lady Gaga before it was cancelled in 2009?

Kanye West's stage interruption at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards stirred the controversy that sank the tour, so Gaga launched her own instead.

Lady Gaga wrote songs for which American girl group before opening for them on tour in 2009?

Pussycat Dolls took her through Europe and Oceania on the Doll Domination Tour, after which she headlined her own Fame Ball Tour.

Which Moroccan-Swedish producer worked with Lady Gaga on much of her 2008 debut album The Fame?

RedOne, born Nadir Khayat, built on that breakthrough to produce for Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias and One Direction.

Who joined Lady Gaga as co-stars of her 2013 Thanksgiving television special on ABC, promoting Artpop?

The Muppets shared the 90-minute show with guests including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and RuPaul, and Gaga sang Gypsy alongside Kermit the Frog.

Which Chicago Fire actor did Lady Gaga meet when he played her love interest in the You and I video?

Taylor Kinney began dating her after the July 2011 shoot, and the pair became engaged in February 2015.

Lady Gaga tied for best actress at the 2019 Critics' Choice Awards with which star of The Wife?

Glenn Close shared the prize in a rare tie, with Gaga honoured for A Star Is Born and Close for playing Joan Castleman.

At which Manhattan venue did Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett give his final concerts, titled One Last Time, in 2021?

Radio City Music Hall hosted the two August shows, recorded for a CBS special, before Bennett retired from performing live.

Which April 2020 benefit broadcast did Lady Gaga curate with Global Citizen in support of the WHO?

One World: Together at Home was hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, and it followed a six-hour pre-show streamed online.

Lady Gaga was the featured artist for the second season of a Festival music mode in which online video game?

Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game developed by Harmonix, made her its headline artist from February to April 2024.

What forced Lady Gaga to cancel the remaining dates of her Born This Way Ball tour in February 2013?

A hip injury, a labral tear brought on by strenuous repetitive movements in the show, needed surgery and wiped out more than twenty dates.

At her 2013 ArtRave launch event, Lady Gaga unveiled Volantis, which she billed as the world's first what?

Flying dress was her name for the hovering Volantis, unveiled at a press conference where she also confirmed plans to stage a performance in space in 2015.

In October 2010 Lady Gaga became the first person to pass one billion total views on which website?

YouTube had seen one of her videos become its most watched clip only six months earlier, in April 2010.

To promote Joanne in 2016, Lady Gaga played a three-date promotional tour of which kind of small venue?

Dive bars suited the record's softer image, which swapped her wild costumes for a pink cowgirl hat and vintage denim.

Which DJ and producer from France made the industrial electro-funk track Killah for Lady Gaga's album Mayhem?

Gesaffelstein gave the track its Nine Inch Nails influences, and Gaga sang it on Saturday Night Live in a purple outfit that Variety read as a nod to Prince.

Which producer, who had also worked on Joanne, served as co-executive producer of Lady Gaga's Chromatica?

BloodPop, a longtime collaborator, supervised the sessions with her and brought in a variety of other producers.

At which university did Lady Gaga launch the Born This Way Foundation in 2012, with Oprah Winfrey as a speaker?

Harvard hosted the launch, where the writer Deepak Chopra and the US health secretary Kathleen Sebelius also spoke.

Lady Gaga launched a MAC Viva Glam lipstick line in collaboration with which 1980s pop star?

Cyndi Lauper fronted the campaign with her as part of Gaga's work against HIV and AIDS, which focused on educating young women about the risks.

Which choreographer served as Lady Gaga's creative director for four years before being replaced by her own assistant?

Laurieann Gibson also co-directed the Judas video with Gaga, and the job passed to her own assistant, Richard Jackson.

Lady Gaga's pregame tribute performance at Super Bowl LIX in 2025 earned her which kind of award?

A Sports Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction recognised the song she sang in New Orleans for the victims of that year's truck attack.

Which debut single by Lady Gaga spent almost five months on the Hot 100 before reaching number one in January 2009?

Just Dance was a sleeper hit that she says took about ten minutes to write, intended simply as a happy record.

Which Chromatica lead single did Lady Gaga release in February 2020, weeks after the full track leaked online?

Stupid Love went on to debut at number five on the Hot 100, and she answered the leak with a joking tweet asking fans to stop.

Which Artpop lead single did Lady Gaga perform to open the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, changing costumes throughout?

Applause reached American airwaves a week ahead of schedule because parts of it had begun leaking online.

Which 2016 lead single did Lady Gaga write with Kevin Parker, frontman of the Australian band Tame Impala?

Perfect Illusion is a dance-rock track about the highest highs and lowest lows of a relationship, and it doubles as a commentary on social media.

Which Joanne ballad by Lady Gaga re-entered the Hot 100 at number four after her Super Bowl halftime show?

Million Reasons grew out of a conversation with the songwriter Hillary Lindsey, its title lifted from Gaga's musings about the men in her life.

Which 2011 single did Lady Gaga write after the death of her grandfather the previous September?

The Edge of Glory has a video to match its simplicity: she sings and dances on a fire escape and the street below, with no troupe of dancers.

Which ballad on The Fame Monster did Lady Gaga write to convince her father to undergo open-heart surgery?

Speechless voiced her fear of losing him to a faulty aortic valve, and she went on to sing it at the Royal Variety Performance.

Which Walking Dead actor played the title role in the music video for Lady Gaga's Judas?

Norman Reedus played Judas Iscariot in a video with a Biblical storyline that Gaga co-directed herself in April 2011.

Quentin Tarantino lent Lady Gaga a truck for her Telephone video that Uma Thurman drove in which of his films?

Kill Bill supplied the truck after Tarantino heard her idea for the video over lunch in Los Angeles and insisted that she use it.

In her You and I video, Lady Gaga walks cross-country to which state to win back a boyfriend?

Nebraska is also where the video was filmed, in the town of Springfield, and the song itself mentions the state by name.

Which 2024 single launched Lady Gaga's Mayhem album, with a video in which she confronts other versions of herself?

Disease arrived in October 2024 with a Tanu Muiño video in which Gaga tries to control her own personified fears.

Which British singer shares the vocals with Lady Gaga on Hey Girl, a track from her album Joanne?

Florence Welch worked out the concept with Gaga at a meeting in Electric Lady Studios, and the lyrics are an ode to feminism.

Which veteran rock producer co-produced Lady Gaga's You and I and sang background vocals on the track?

Mutt Lange shared the production with Gaga on the downtempo, guitar-driven song, one of the first previewed from Born This Way.