60 Fun Facts About Lady Gaga

What is Lady Gaga's real first name?

She was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in Manhattan in 1986, and 'Joanne' later became an album title.

Her stage name was derived from a song by which band?

The song was 'Radio Ga Ga', and producer Rob Fusari claimed to be the first to call her Lady Gaga.

According to Rob Fusari, a phone autocorrected which word to 'Lady', creating her stage name?

He said he tried to text her 'Radio Ga Ga' and the autocorrect did the rest.

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

She was signed in September 2006 and gone by the end of the year, before Interscope picked her up.

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

Reid had approved her signing to Def Jam only months earlier.

Gaga's creative team, the Haus of Gaga, was modeled on which artist's studio, The Factory?

She set up the Haus after relocating to Los Angeles to finish The Fame in 2008.

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

It also spent a record 83 weeks on Billboard's Digital Songs chart.

Which song was announced as The Fame's second single, then demoted to a promo single?

ABC even cut a video for it to promote the show Dirty Sexy Money.

'Telephone' was originally written for which singer's album Circus?

After the label passed, Gaga recorded it herself with Beyonce for The Fame Monster.

Who photographed the two covers of The Fame Monster?

Interscope initially rejected the brunette cover as too gothic until Gaga sold them on the yin-and-yang idea.

How many new songs does The Fame Monster contain?

Interscope originally asked for just three tracks for the reissue.

Who designed the raw-meat dress Gaga wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards?

Formichetti styled the look, and Gaga had to be stitched into the dress backstage.

The 2010 meat dress was made from which cut of beef?

The meat came from the designer's family butcher and was chosen because it would keep well.

How much did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pay a taxidermist to preserve the meat dress?

Sergio Vigilato treated it with bleach, formaldehyde and detergent, then dyed it dark red so it looked fresh again.

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.

Roughly how many copies did Born This Way sell in the US in its first week?

It was the highest first-week total since 50 Cent's The Massacre in 2005.

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

Her name does not appear on the cover, only the chrome album title across the top.

'Born This Way' debuted at number one as which milestone number-one single in Billboard Hot 100 history?

It also sold more than a million copies in five days, a Guinness record for iTunes at the time.

Which E Street Band saxophonist played on Born This Way?

His solo closes 'The Edge of Glory', one of the last recordings before his death in 2011.

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

In 2025 she said the character was 'no longer with us'.

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

The background collages fragments of Bernini's Apollo and Daphne and Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

In Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, Gaga played an assassin with what name?

The film earned less than half of its $33 million budget.

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

It had reached number 13 in the US as the album's second single.

How old was Tony Bennett when Cheek to Cheek made him the oldest to top the US album chart?

He beat his own record, set three years earlier with another duets album.

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

They had met earlier in 2011 at a Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York.

Gaga first met Tony Bennett in 2011 at a gala after performing which Nat King Cole song?

Bennett was impressed enough to invite her onto his next duets album.

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

It was Bennett's sixty-first and final studio album.

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

Gaga has the date of her aunt's death tattooed on her left bicep.

Who served alongside Gaga as executive producer of Joanne?

The two grew up near each other on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

How many drones formed the American flag behind Gaga in the Super Bowl LI halftime opening?

The rooftop segment was filmed earlier in the week because the FAA would not allow the swarm over a live crowd.

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

The lighting designer pitched them with 'I can't give you money, but I can give you exposure', and Intel agreed.

What did Gaga catch as she jumped off the stage to end her Super Bowl LI halftime show?

She shouted 'Super Bowl LI!' and dropped the mic first.

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

He said she 'demolished the room'; the song also appears in the film's drag-bar scene.

Which singer was first choice to play Ally in A Star Is Born, working with Cooper for a year before leaving?

The project had been announced back in 2011 with Clint Eastwood attached to direct.

Which musician was Bradley Cooper's first choice for the male lead in A Star Is Born?

Cooper had planned only to direct until the idea was rejected.

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.

How many of the 34 tracks on the A Star Is Born soundtrack are original songs?

Gaga insisted that she and Cooper perform the songs live on camera.

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

Leto, Pacino and Irons all appear as other members of the Gucci family.

Who directed House of Gucci?

Scott had been attached to a Gucci film as far back as 2006.

For how long did Gaga stay in character as Patrizia Reggiani while making House of Gucci?

By the end of filming she was accompanied on set by a psychiatric nurse.

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

The group sings in both English and Korean on the track.

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

It made Gaga the third act to top the Hot 100 in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.

What was Chromatica's tentative working title, taken from one of its tracks?

She dropped it because her own struggles made the title feel dishonest.

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

The remaining sessions moved to Henson Recording Studios.

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?

Genest appeared in her 'Born This Way' video before his death in 2018.

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

It topped the Billboard Global 200 for 18 weeks and was the most streamed song of 2025.

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

Mayhem took Best Pop Vocal Album the same night.

Roughly how many attended Gaga's free 2025 Copacabana concert, the largest crowd ever for a female artist?

It was part of the city's 'Todo Mundo no Rio' initiative.

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

She had 'Little Monsters' tattooed on herself in their honor.

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.

Two of Gaga's dogs were stolen in a 2021 shooting of her dog walker. What breed were they?

Koji and Gustav were returned unharmed two days later, and the shooter got 21 years.

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

The film flopped, but she also released a companion album, Harlequin.

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

She shared score duties with Hans Zimmer and Harold Faltermeyer.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics opening, Gaga sang 'Mon truc en plumes', a song made famous by whom?

The feathered cabaret number was a nod to French music-hall tradition.

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

From age 11 she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls school on the Upper East Side.

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

She announced a suite of photo-capture products called Grey Label under the partnership.

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

The same year she cut a jazz version of 'The Lady Is a Tramp' with Tony Bennett.

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

The pair played downtown clubs such as the Mercury Lounge, the Bitter End and the Rockwood Music Hall.

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

The clip was for 'Stiff Upper Lip'; she also had a tiny role in a 2001 episode of The Sopranos.