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Don't ask, don't tell was repealed in December 2010, three months after Gaga rallied against it in Portland, Maine.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