Joanne Stefani Germanotta (born March 20, 1986), best known by her stage name Lady GaGa, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Born in Yonkers, New York, to an Italian family, Lady GaGa is known for work in the electronica genre. She was influenced by rockers such as David Bowie and Queen as well as '80s dance-pop such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. She grew up in Manhattan, where she attended private school at Convent of the Sacred Heart and later studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. At age 20, she began working for Interscope Records as a songwriter, penning songs for pop acts such as the Pussycat Dolls.

In 2008, Lady GaGa released her debut album, The Fame, which she explained was "about how anyone can feel famous". To date, the album spawned the hit singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". Both singles topped the Canadian Hot 100 as well as the ARIA Singles Chart.  She has been nominated for a Grammy Award.

She remembers singing into a plastic tape recorder to the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson as a little girl.  By age four, Lady GaGa had taught herself to play the piano by ear. When she was a teenager, she penned her first song.

Lady GaGa attended the private Catholic school Convent of the Sacred Heart, whose alumni include the Hilton sisters and Caroline Kennedy. However, she stated that "never saw those girls for more than 10 seconds down the hallways".  By the age of fourteen, she was playing open-mic nights at New York’s Bitter End. She was a fixture in the productions of the Regis High School Repertory, including the roles of Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anna Andreyevna in The Government Inspector, Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Alice More in A Man for All Seasons.  She also sang in the productions of the Regis Jazz Band.  At age 17, Germanotta became was one of 20 kids in the world to get early admission to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

In 2006, she started working with music producer Rob Fusari, with whom she wrote several of her early downtown hits like "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich", "Dirty Ice Cream" and "Disco Heaven". It was when she performed the song "Again, Again" for Fusari that she created the stage name, Lady GaGa (which is a reference to the song "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen).  He started calling her "GaGa" as a nickname around the studio after noticing she evoked the high theatrical stylings of Queen lead vocalist Freddie Mercury while performing. "He [Rob Fusari] said to me 'That's the most interesting part of you, right there. That girl'. Then I just took a vow to always be that honest" recalls Lady GaGa.

Lady GaGa was originally signed to Def Jam when she was nineteen years old but was dropped after three months. "It [Me] just wasn’t for them," she said nonchalantly.  She was spotted a couple of years later by the music executive Vincent Herbert and signed to Interscope in January 2008. Impressed by her ear for melody and knack for spotting a great hook, various acts — Akon’s Konvict label, as well as Fergie, Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and New Kids on the Block — have hired her as a songwriter.

By 2008, Lady GaGa had relocated to Los Angeles, working closely with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame. "The Fame is about how anyone can feel famous,” she explains. "Pop culture is art. It doesn’t make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it’s a sharable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle."

GaGa started to work with a collective called the "Haus of GaGa", who collaborate with their muse on clothing, stage sets and sounds. "In this industry, you get a lot of stylists and producers thrown at you, but this is my own creative team, modelled on Warhol’s Factory. Everyone is under 26 and we do everything together."

The Fame received mostly positive reviews from critics, according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it has received an average score of 72 out of 100.  Times Online described the album as "a fantastic mix of Bowie-esque ballads, dramatic, Queen-inspired midtempo numbers and synth-based dance tracks that poke fun at celebrity-chasing rich kids".

The album's lead single, "Just Dance" was released on April 8, 2008 and has reached number one in Australia and Canada.  The single then started to gain radio airplay in the US by October, and hit number one in 2009, on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Pop 100 charts.  GaGa stated that her debut single is about "being totally wasted at a party [...] in that situation we never really want to stop the party so we just dance through it." The second single, "Poker Face", was released on September 29, 2008 and has reached number one in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.  "Poker Face" has also started to climb the charts in the U.S. currently standing at number eighty one.

The Fame was released in August in Canada, Australia and some European countries, peaking at number one in Canada and seven in Australia.  Haus of GaGa turned their focus further upon the US market, with Lady GaGa going on her first ever concert tour with fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block. GaGa started her stint with New Kids on the Block in Los Angeles on October 8, and continued through the end of November.  Collaborating with New Kids on the Block, Lady GaGa is a featured guest on the song "Big Girl Now" from their new album, The Block.  On late October, Gaga released The Fame in the US, where at peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 24,000 units.  It also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart.

On December 5, 2008, Lady GaGa was added to the BBC Sound of 2009 longlist, which features the best rising music stars.  GaGa also has just been confirmed as the support act for Pussycat Dolls on their Europe and Oceania arena dates in January 2009 until May 2009.  The tour starts in Aberdeen, Scotland on 18 January, and ends in Perth, Australia on May 30.   To celebrate the Season 2 launch of the hit show, Dirty Sexy Money, ABC has created a brand new, exclusive music video of the Gaga's similarly-titled song "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich". Directed by Melina, this pulse-pounding visual treat takes you inside the Darling mansion, where Lady Gaga and friends are holding court.
 
On January 12, 2009, Lady GaGa announced she would embark on her first headlining tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which is sponsored by Dylan George Jeans.  The venture will run throughout the United States and Canada.  GaGa has promised her fans that they can expect plenty of high drama from her upcoming performances, "I consider what I do to be more of an Andy Warhol concept: pop performance art, multimedia, fashion, technology, video, film. And it's all coming together, and it's going to be traveling museum show."