26 Lady Gaga Facts For Her Little Monsters

The following article includes mentions of mental health issues, suicide and suicidal ideation, sexual abuse, eating disorders, and addiction.

Lady Gaga ushered the public into her life in the Chris Moukarbel-directed 2017 documentary "Gaga: Five Foot Two." Without a shadow of doubt, the "Bad Romance" star's legion of devotees — her Little Monsters — were the happiest to see the singer-songwriter in her element. Lady Gaga laid it all on the table intimately, letting the cameras find their way through her home while she fed her pets and got a massage. She further took the audience into a hospital room, where she had a medical check-up.

The pop star also discussed how less insecure she'd become as she grew older, in addition to having a zero-tolerance approach toward dating. Her Little Monsters were even taken behind the scenes of her studio time, and a chronicle of the preparations leading up to her much-anticipated Super Bowl half-time show made for an exhilarating close. Despite her transparency, there's still a lot to learn about the enigmatic Mother Monster. Behold, here are some lesser-known facts about the egg-dwelling, meat-wearing, Super Bowl-slaying Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga was acquainted with singer Lina Morgana, who died by suicide in 2008. TMZ reported that Morgana's mom accused Lady Gaga of copying Morgana's signature styles, from her hoodie dresses to her eye makeup and vocals, after they collaborated in 2007. The Sun reported in 2016 that conspiracy theorists believed Lady Gaga was actually accused of murdering her alleged rival — but the claim holds little weight, owing to the fact that Lady Gaga wasn't even in the same country at the time of Morgana's death.

After the tragic incident, Rob Fusari, an acquaintance with whom Lady Gaga and Morgana had a history, detailed a serendipitous encounter the three had experienced that left him with unanswered questions. "We went to eat some pizza and some stranger came running out the pizza place after us, and he said that, 'God sent me to tell you something,'" Fusari said. As anyone in his place would have done, Fusari brushed him off. Morgana's untimely demise shortly afterward brought with it a remorseful recollection. "Now I wish I knew what he was going to say because I never found out what he had to say," he expressed in a regretful tone.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Talent scout Wendy Starland sued producer Rob Fusari, claiming she was owed 50 percent of his earnings from Lady Gaga's music in exchange for discovering the singer. In 2014, it was revealed that Gaga had a relationship with Fusari, and she accused him of intimidating her into signing a deal that wasn't ideal. "I believe that Rob led Wendy to believe that he would include her in the development of my career but had no intention of doing so," she claimed in a deposition, per Radar Online, adding that Fusari allegedly trapped her with a bucket load of paperwork.

His approach, she relayed, was allegedly predatory at best, and an up-and-coming artist such as Lady Gaga, who had no leverage at the time, was bound to give in. "I remember I was advised very early that the terms of the agreement were not normal," Lady Gaga disclosed. In 2014, it was also reported that she paid Fusari $10 million in a previous legal settlement after they'd each sued one another over wages allegedly owed.

Christina Aguilera told the Los Angeles Times of Lady Gaga in 2008 (via Entertainment Weekly), "I'm not quite sure who this person is, to be honest. I don't know if it is a man or a woman. I just wasn't sure. I really don't spend any time on the internet, so I guess I live a little under a rock in that respect." Lady Gaga never actually dissed Aguilera, but Akon, who discovered the Mother Monster, did in 2010, when he told Vibe the two artists were incomparable. "You are actually giving Christina too much credit," the "Don't Matter" singer voiced. "She always had her cool little look and way about how she went about things. But soon as Gaga came out everything switched up."

In 2013, Lady Gaga revealed that she was, in fact, a fan of Aguilera's music in her mid-teens. She swore by the "Lady Marmalade" singer's vocal prowess. "When I was 15, I was singing 'I Turn to You' at the top of my lungs trying to hit all her notes," Lady Gaga said during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" (via Idolator). She went on to apologize for any backlash that had been sent in Aguilera's direction amidst their conflict. They soon buried the hatchet completely and collaborated on a remix of Gaga's "Do What You Want."

Perez Hilton was a staunch Little Monster in the early days of Lady Gaga's fame, but he turned against her at some point and mocked her charting numbers for "Applause" on Twitter when it debuted in August 2013. "Crazy that @LadyGaGa's new song keeps dropping on @iTunesMusic in America! @KatyPerry's #Roar stays at #1, though," Hilton wrote.

In response, Lady Gaga tweeted, "Still have the text Perez sent me of me in a wheelchair [with] the [word] 'KARMA' written across [and] Madonna pointing a gun at me. Day of my accident." She followed with a since-deleted tweet claiming Hilton stalked her at her New York apartment, which the celeb gossip blogger denied in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, claiming that he was looking at a unit in the same building.

"He put an offer in on two apartments in the building," Lady Gaga revealed on "The Howard Stern Show" (via the Los Angeles Times). "Why do you need to live in my apartment? There's only one reason: to try to hurt me, or harass me, or blow yourself up. If you hate me, hate me from over there. Continue firing away on your blog and your Twitter." The feud had apparently begun during an interview in which Hilton got ahead of himself when Lady Gaga agreed to be his guest and shot hurtful questions her way. Since then, the "Bloody Mary" singer has distanced herself from the blogger.

Unlike Lady Gaga, who alluded to taking a less subtle approach toward addressing any issues she may have in "Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two," Madonna took to the media to express dislike for the pop star, which rubbed her the wrong way. "She wouldn't look me in the eye and tell me that I was reductive or whatever," Lady Gaga complained in the documentary. "Telling me you think I'm a piece of s*** through the media? It's like a guy passing me a note through his friend. ... I don't pass notes in school. ... I want Madonna to push me up against the wall and kiss me and tell me I'm a piece of s***."

She also claimed that she felt like Madonna kicked her when she was down, as the "Papa Don't Preach" singer made comments when Lady Gaga was heavily medicated for hip pain on the "Born This Way Ball Tour" in 2012. This was in spite of Lady Gaga's adoration for the seven-time Grammy Award winner. While everyone knows about Lady Gaga's beef with Madonna, not everyone knows that Madonna actually apologized to her for basically bullying her in the press. However, their relationship, Lady Gaga stated, had gotten to a point of no trust.

Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney called off their engagement in July 2016 after five years of being almost too adorable together, and soon we knew her side of the split: She hinted that her casting in "A Star Is Born" (2018) led to the end of their romance. "Me and Taylor are fighting, so that sucks," she said in "Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two." "My threshold for bulls*** with men is just — I don't have one anymore."

Lady Gaga's love life had taken up a peculiar rhythm. As professional milestones came knocking, personal setbacks tagged along. "I sold 10 million [records] and lost Matt. I sold 30 million and lost Luc. I did a movie and lose Taylor. It's like a turnover. This is the third time I've had my heart broken like this," she shared.

In 2019, Lady Gaga broke yet another engagement to her then-fiancé, talent agent Christian Carino. According to Us Weekly, her career may have had something to do with it. "[Carino] infringed on her creative process," an anonymous source claimed. "[She] couldn't risk jeopardizing her career in that way, over a man, and that's not something she would stand for." Lady Gaga has since cozied up to tech investor Michael Polansky.

In February 2013, Lady Gaga had to cancel her "Born This Way Ball Tour" to get hip surgery that was initially reported to be for a labral tear. However, months later she revealed her condition was dire. "My injury was actually a lot worse than just a labral tear — I had broken my hip," she told Women's Wear Daily that July. "Nobody knew. ... But when we got all the MRIs finished before I went to surgery, there were giant craters, a hole in my hip the size of a quarter, and the cartilage was just hanging out the other side of my hip."

Lady Gaga also had a fractured joint. Had she continued touring, the resulting damage could have warranted a total hip arthroplasty. She would have needed a year or more to fully recover. Luck was on the "Paparazzi" singer's side since it took her six months to get back on her feet, during which her third studio album "Artpop" got her undivided attention.

Lady Gaga detailed her struggles with chronic pain in "Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour." For five years, the singer-songwriter brought her A-game to the stage whilst aching, yet medical records showed that she was fine. "I was going to the doctor all the time, getting like my whole body X-rayed, MRIed, everything, for someone to tell me something was wrong," she shared. Getting the right diagnosis was a herculean task that took time. Broadcasting it to the world in 2017 was as hard for her as it was for "Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two" director Chris Mourkabel.

A teary-eyed Lady Gaga explained her choice to go public at a press conference at the time. "There is an element and a very strong piece of me that believes pain is a microphone," she stated (via BuzzFeed News). "My pain does me no good unless I transform it into something that is. So I hope people watching it who do struggle with chronic pain know that they're not alone. It's freeing for me ... and I want people that struggle with it to hear me."

In September 2017, Lady Gaga revealed that she had to cancel a Rock In Rio performance because of health complications. Earlier, she'd tweeted that she was keeping warm to help alleviate her condition. Days later, she had to postpone her European tour due to severe pain from fibromyalgia.

At 19, Lady Gaga was sexually abused and impregnated by an unnamed music producer. She opened up about the traumatic experience in the Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry-created Apple TV+ series "The Me You Can't See." "A producer said to me, 'Take your clothes off,' and I said, 'No,'" Lady Gaga recalled. "And I left, and they told me they were gonna burn all my music. ... They didn't stop asking me, and then I just froze and I just ... I don't even remember."

In a 2016 conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Lady Gaga revealed that she resorted to self-blame after the incident, which happened when she was new to fame. "I thought to myself, 'Did I do something wrong to bring this on myself? What did I do? I choose to wear these clothes, and I choose to dress this way and sing about sex, and you wonder if you're implying to people that it's okay,'" she said. The gruesome occurrence inspired her Oscar-nominated song "Til It Happens to You." It was a pain that never left, one which had her sealing the identity of her assaulter to protect herself.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Being sexually abused gave Lady Gaga post-traumatic stress disorder, as she revealed in a December 2016 open letter on her Born This Way foundation website. "There is a lot of shame attached to mental illness. ... It is a daily effort for me ... to regulate my nervous system so that I don't panic over circumstances that to many would seem like normal life situations," she wrote.

Reliving the difficult period spiked her anxiety levels when coming into contact with fans, and so did mundane things like leaving the comfort of her home. Lady Gaga also cited her struggles with dissociation, writing in part, "My mind doesn't want to relive the pain so 'I look off and I stare' in a glazed over state. ... My body is in one place and my mind in another. It's like the panic accelerator in my mind gets stuck and I am paralyzed with fear. When this happens I can't talk." The resulting depression, a potential sign of post-traumatic stress disorder, got in the way of her ability to perform day-to-day tasks as she normally would.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Lady Gaga's music video for her single "Do What You Want" — featuring R. Kelly and directed by Terry Richardson — was set for a December 2013 release. It never officially saw the light of day. In June 2014, she blamed the lack of a visual for the track on poor scheduling, but there was likely another factor influencing her decision to block its release. In December 2013, a Village Voice article detailed disturbing sexual assault allegations against Kelly, while Richardson was facing sexual harassment allegations concurrently. The video, unearthed by TMZ and since-deleted, was extra disturbing in light of the accusations levied against its participants and creative team.

Following the release of "Surviving R. Kelly" much later, Lady Gaga took to Twitter to denounce her collaboration with the now infamous "I Believe I Can Fly" songster. "I stand behind these women 1000%," her statement partially read. "... As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life." Lady Gaga subsequently relayed the intention to pull "Do What You Want" from all digital portals.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

In February 2012, Lady Gaga opened up about her struggles with bulimia and anorexia as a teen. "I used to throw up all the time in high school. So I'm not that confident," she said at a women's conference (via Page Six). "I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night." She revealed that her dangerous binging and purging negatively impacted not just her health, but also her music. The resulting pH imbalance in her vocal folds made singing burdensome.

As Lady Gaga's star shone brighter, her struggles with weight remained constant. "Every video I'm in, every magazine cover, they stretch you — they make you perfect," she explained. "It's not real life. ... I'm gonna say this about girls: The dieting wars have got to stop. Everyone just knock it off. Because at the end of the day, it's affecting kids your age. And it's making girls sick."

The ghosts from Lady Gaga's past appeared to show up yet again when she portrayed Patrizia Reggiani in the multiple award-nominated movie "House of Gucci." She took on an intense method-acting approach that not only had her eating all she could to gain a voluptuous appearance, but admittedly hindered her physical and mental health by the end of the shoot, as revealed on the "Just For Variety" podcast.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

In 2013, Lady Gaga admitted that she was once hooked on marijuana. "I have been addicted to it and it's ultimately related to anxiety coping and it's a form of self-medication," she told the "Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show" (via People). Rolling up to 20 joints a day, the songstress confessed that she largely smoked to take the edge off the ache in her hip and curb depressive episodes.

To get rid of the habit, she told Attitude (via Spin) that performance artist Marina Abramovic came to her aid. "It wasn't until I was with Marina and she said, 'Okay, you're coming to my house: No television, no computer, no marijuana, no nothing, no food. For three days, art only. You eat only art.' I cold-turkeyed," she let the publication know. In the weeks that followed, Lady Gaga stayed off the herb. However, she didn't ditch cannabis indefinitely. The pop star still has it as an occasional indulgence, as seen in "Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two." "Marina was the only person who could get me to do that and it was not intended to be rehab," Lady Gaga proclaimed.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Lady Gaga's history of excessive drug use began at a young age and worsened upon her entry into the spotlight. "A friend gave me this term, 'I lily pad from substance to substance,' because I get to a point where I can't go any further with one substance so I move to another. But the truth is that it is very hard to be famous," she revealed in that same "Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show" interview.

Lady Gaga also disclosed that the pressure to show up at her very best — both on a creative front and while making public appearances — contributed to her drug habit. "I think there is an assumption ... that I cannot break because I am an alien woman and I am unstoppable," she explained, adding that she was, in fact, human; capable of fault, failing, and experiencing pain and loss. As previously mentioned, she lived through a downward spiral following her hip surgery that confined her to a wheelchair for half a year.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Lady Gaga's chart power can't be disputed, but the root causes of her sales success have been debated — and when "Born This Way" dropped in May 2011, it sold so many units that Billboard may have altered their chart rules because of it. It was reported that Lady Gaga sold more than 1 million copies of "Born This Way" in its first week of release, and 440,000 of those units were from an Amazon fire sale that gave buyers the entire album for $0.99.

Following the success of "Born This Way" (and its discount), in November 2011, Billboard adjusted its rules: Now, only albums priced at $3.49 or above can be eligible for charting. Had that regulation been in effect when "Born This Way" was released, Lady Gaga still would have moved 880,000 units of her album, which is impressive — but Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter IV" would have likely come in a No. 1 that week.

To keep going amidst a myriad of pitfalls that took a toll on her mental and physiological health, Lady Gaga sought a number of solutions, including counseling and medical treatment. "I have to say it, and I know that this is controversial in a lot of ways, but medicine really helped me," she asserted on Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour, expressing her hope to break down the stigma surrounding this. Lady Gaga's song "911" from her sixth studio album "Chromatica," for example, is inspired by an anti-psychotic drug she takes, Olanzapine — but there are also other prescription drugs in her cabinet. "I'm on anti-depressants. I am on a medicine called methocarbamol ... and I take a few other things that are stress-based," she listed in her dialogue with Oprah Winfrey.

The singer also incorporates self-care practices such as exercise, long baths, and meditation into her routine. To mark World Mental Health Day in 2017, Lady Gaga took to Instagram Live to invite her followers into a transcendental meditation session, while reminding them to prioritize self-love. Her foundation's online course, Be There, was also created in 2022 to impart knowledge on mental health.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

In April 2017, Lady Gaga broke Coachella's 10-year female headliner dry spell by showcasing an electrifying act. Part of her set included an acoustic performance of the song "The Edge of Glory," off of her sophomore solo studio album "Born This Way." The emotional staging was dedicated to her friend and the then-managing director of Haus of Gaga, Sonja Durham, who had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer.

Sadly, Durham died the following month. In a long heartfelt tribute shared via Instagram, Lady Gaga recounted what was a decade-long journey the pair shared that extended beyond work. "She had this incredible way of releasing me from the anchor of my own sadness that held me back, she loved me fearlessly while I learned how to cope with fame and stay inspired no matter how scared I was," the "Just Dance" pop sensation wrote in part about Durham. "She knew all I cared about was the music. She made that ok."

Lady Gaga's real name, as her devoted Little Monsters may already know, is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Her first middle name is an ode to her late aunt, Joanne Stefani Germanotta — who was also Gaga's dad's late sibling. An introduction to the 2018 video of a piano version of "Joanne," the third song off of her fifth studio album that bears the same name, reads: "Joanne was my father's sister who died at the age of 19 from the autoimmune disease Lupus. My father was only 15 when she passed away."

Although Lady Gaga never came face to face with Joanne, she was compelled to delve into the deeply personal body of work because of an otherworldly tie they shared. At home, it was hard to ignore the void left by Joanne, which often showed in the grieving faces of family members she'd left behind. The album "Joanne," then, was the artist's attempt at wearing her father's shoes.

"Joanne," the track, won a Grammy Award for best pop solo performance in 2019. Lady Gaga showed appreciation for the moment via Twitter, writing in part, "A Grammy for 'Joanne' is more than me & my family could ever dream of. I sang that version in one take, & poured my entire life & soul into it."

Back in 2011, Lady Gaga didn't like the idea of buying a home. With so much time spent on tour, it made more sense to forgo the expense, as she said in a chat with former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. "I'm a gypsy, you know," she revealed on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." "... I can't plan my life out like that so much, and then I think, 'Well, gosh! What a waste of money to buy a place when I'm on the road.'"

With growth, of course, Lady Gaga had a change of mind. When Vogue caught up with her in 2018, she was nestled in a Malibu mansion with a scenic ocean view. "This is my sanctuary. My oasis of peace. I call it my 'gypsy place,'" she told the publication. The calm it offered was a break from the fast-paced New York surroundings she'd previously been accustomed to. In 2021, it was reported that Lady Gaga had sold a six-bathroom home previously occupied by the late "Bobby Brown Goes Down" singer Frank Zappa that she'd acquired in 2016.

In 2008, Lady Gaga debuted her first studio album "The Fame." Its concept, she explained, was to allow her listeners to give into their own inner superstardom — a phenomenon she'd come to have conflicted emotions about. Her follow-up EP "The Fame Monster" explored the troubling side of celebrity, with the pop star telling MTV News of the two works, "It's yin and yang." Lady Gaga further delved into this ambivalence of popularity by releasing a fragrance dubbed "Fame" in 2012. Pitch black in its bottle and transparent when sprayed, it broke new ground in the world of perfumery. Gaga told CNN, "I wanted to create something that represented the duality of fame."

It's a polarity she's experienced firsthand. Her Little Monsters are as affectionate a fandom as they come: Case in point, the singer once paused a 2017 concert to read aloud a heartfelt letter from a fan thanking her for sharing her empowering messages. However, Lady Gaga's faced some serious downsides, such as when her French bulldogs were stolen in 2021, with her dog walker left nursing a gunshot wound (thankfully, he survived, and the dogs were found safe).

"I hated being famous. I hated being a star. I felt exhausted and used up," Lady Gaga reflected to "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2020, expressing how the pressures and objectification of fame led her to struggle with suicidal ideation at one point. "... I don't hate Lady Gaga anymore. I found a way to love myself again, even when I thought that was never going to happen."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Lady Gaga's generous side has often remained untold, but this pop star has used her platform to proudly support dozens of charities throughout her career. In 2012, the "Shallow" singer unveiled her Born This Way foundation at Harvard University. At the event, moderated by media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga revealed that the foundation was inspired by her 2011 hit with the same name, and that it's trickled down to her Little Monsters.

"The song 'Born This Way' arose out of a dialogue that existed between myself and my fans. And after I wrote the song and after I put the album out, the conversation ignited even further," she said, noting that the overall message she'd received was, "'I wanna help. I wanna be brave. I want there to be more tolerance in the universe; I want there to be more acceptance.'" Lady Gaga added, "And what I realized more than anything was that I never wanted this dialogue to end."

At its core, the Born This Way foundation is a platform that advocates for sound mental well-being amongst youth. In December 2022, for example, it was announced that the foundation had made donations to the tune of $1 million in support of mental wellness non-profits like VOICEup Berks and Mighty Writers. Its sister platform, Channel Kindness, aptly promotes its titular virtue, which has been synonymous with Lady Gaga's career: On one benevolent occasion, for example, she paid it forward by covering everyone's drinks at a local bar in Birmingham, England.

In addition to openly identifying as bisexual early on in her career, Lady Gaga is also comfortable wearing the LGBTQ+ ally hat — and the pop star is arguably one of the music industry's strongest and outspoken advocates for the community. Time and again, she's overtly co-driven the Pride caravan.

One of the basic principles of her Born This Way foundation is equality; meanwhile, her queer anthem of the same name was influenced by the work of the late Motown artist Carl Bean, a gay activist of color. Prior to this, at the 2009 MuchMusic Awards, Lady Gaga earned an international video win for her hit single "Poker Face," which she's since noted was inspired by her sexuality. In her acceptance speech, the star defied societal norms to pay homage to the LGBTQ+ community at a time when it wasn't fashionable to do so by famously affirming, "To God and the gays!" Over the years, Lady Gaga would advocate for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, champion marriage equality, perform at the VMAs as her drag king alter ego Jo Calderone, address bisexual erasure while speaking at the Stonewall Inn, and even refuse to back down when the Russian government threatened litigation after she supported the LGBTQ+ community while in concert.

At the 2021 Oscars, Gaga told a reporter (via Attitude), "I feel that it is right and true to say this: I am a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community but I do not speak for them. ... And without the LGBTQ+ community, I would not be who I am."

Although she now has an army of Little Monsters to come to her defense if the need arose, Lady Gaga wasn't as popular in high school. Unfortunately, the future star was a victim of bullying. "I remember things that my bullies said to me in front of other people, and no one said anything. Nobody said to me, 'Are you ok? Are you fine?'" Lady Gaga recalled on "The Project" in 2020. At the time, she opted to stay mum about her experience since voicing her oppression would jeopardize her even further. Gradually, Gaga sunk into depression. Reflecting on her experience, she said, "Being bullied has taught me the importance of spreading kindness in the world."

Somewhat ironically, Lady Gaga was ill-treated for the very reason she's become a celebrated icon: her ambition. It's a past she revisited in the making of "A Star is Born" (more on this acclaimed flick below). However, unlike her character of Ally Maine, Lady Gaga left no stone unturned in her pursuit of greatness. "When I decided I was going to go for it as a singer and a songwriter, I just hit the ground running. And I was dragging my keyboard around New York, pounding on doors, and I really believed in myself," she disclosed to People in 2018.

36 Grammy nominations and 13 wins later, as of this writing, it's safe to say that Lady Gaga's belief in herself has stood the test of time.

In 2018, Lady Gaga co-starred alongside Bradley Cooper in "A Star is Born." The making of the movie unlocked for the actor-singer a never-before-experienced creative realm that was made possible by Cooper's stellar direction on set. "Being in this film has been one of the most fulfilling artistic experiences of my life, and I'm so very grateful," she declared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." The Academy was in agreement: the following year, Lady Gaga landed her first Oscar win for the original song "Shallow," which she and Cooper famously duetted at the Oscars ceremony.

While accepting her award, she gave away her roadmap toward achieving excellence in multiple entertainment fields. Simply put, Lady Gaga had clocked 10,000 hours of practice and exceeded her own expectations by walking the talk, even when the tides were against her. "If you are at home, and you're sitting on your couch, and you are watching this right now, all I have to say is that this is hard work. I have worked hard for a long time," she said in between sobs. "... It's not about winning. But what it's about is not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it. ... It's not about how many times you get rejected, or you fall down, or you're beaten up. It's about how many times you stand up and are brave and you keep on going."

Lady Gaga has garnered millions of views and topped dance charts worldwide as a solo act. But she, of course, listens to other artists. "Who's on her playlist?" you may ask. The answer to that million-dollar question is just as extensive and deep as the music she makes.

Like all of us, Lady Gaga has songs that represent different phases of her life, as she shared with The Guardian in 2009. Back when she sniffed rows upon rows of cocaine, the "Telephone" singer had The Cure's "Never Enough" on repeat. And when her debut compilation "The Fame" was still in the works, she listened to The Beatles' 11th studio album "Abbey Road." "It's the sense of melody in conjunction with very liberating, strange storytelling, and it's a complete body of work from beginning to end," Lady Gaga said of the English quartet. "You feel like they've learned from each other: On 'Oh Darling,' you think it's John, but actually it's Paul doing John."

When Lady Gaga first heard of the Heavy Metal Kids, it was through rock n' roll DJ Lady Starlight, with whom she's performed on a Lollapalooza stage prior to making it big. The British band sparked her interest in glam rock and impacted her fashion choices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gaga has also cited David Bowie as an inspiration, while also revealing a range of pop and rock artists who have made their way onto her list of favorites, including Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Britney Spears.

In an era where stars are heavily investing in the beauty industry and minting millions in the full glare of the public, Lady Gaga hasn't been left out of the cosmetics bandwagon. Except, in true Mother Monster fashion, she did it with a twist when Haus Laboratories was founded in 2019. 

Through a personalized note shared on Instagram at the time, Lady Gaga highlighted how the discovery of makeup made a difference in her own life. "I found the superhero within me by looking in the mirror and seeing who I wanted to be," she wrote in part. "Sometimes beauty doesn't come naturally from within. But I'm so grateful that makeup inspired a bravery in me I didn't know I had. I've come to accept that I discovered my beauty by having the ability to invent myself and transform." As Haus Labs' global artistry director Sarah Tanno explained to The Cut, the goal of this brand was to provide products that inspired consumers to go on a similar journey of self-expression.

It was a partnership backed by Amazon, one which married technology and science-friendly raw material to produce toxic-free, cruelty-free, and sustainable products with an artistic touch. In May 2022, Haus Labs by Lady Gaga entered the global market by collaborating with mega beauty retailer Sephora.