Going gaga over Lady GaGa

Who is Lady GaGa? Strange lady. Strange name. Well not really strange. We know what gaga stands for. It is gaga as in going gaga about something like being overly enthusiastic about something or somebody like fans do with an idol. In Tagalog, gaga or gago is slang for dumb-dumb, dodo or plain stupid. If things continue to go well with the new pop sensation, Lady GaGa, who got her name from the Queen recording Radio Ga-Ga, we might discover another meaning to the word.

Now why are so many people buying Lady GaGa’s CD titled Fame. I must say it cannot be just because she looks beautiful and interesting on the cover. It is only her very first album but it has consistently been in the Top 10 these past six months and has already produced two big selling singles and earned Grammy recognition. The hit songs are the new release Poker Face and the big No. 1 seller that turned the unknown into a star, Just Dance featuring Colby O’Donis. Lady GaGa’s music probably offers something that listeners enjoy very much.

So I checked out her bio on the Net. That is what you do these days when you want to check out somebody. No more volumes of books or piles of papers to read, you just google or go to wikipedia. What I found was impressive. Lady GaGa, who went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart and New York University is only 22 years old. She is a pianist, singer, songwriter and theatrical artist in the New York underground scene. She started working as a songwriter for Interscope Records where she wrote tunes for acts like the Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and New Kids on the Block. Then thanks to prodding from Akon, she turned recording artist early last year with the Grammy nominated Just Dance and became a star.

I also read somewhere that Lady GaGa is a female impersonator. I do not know if this means that she is a male who impersonates females in her act or a female who impersonates other female singers. She looks and sounds female but this is the era of BB Gandangharis so you can not be really sure nowadays. But no matter what the gender, it is a fact that GaGa can sing and her voice is just right for the mix of dance and rock that she does.

Lady GaGa can also write and unlike most dance tunes whose appeal rests mainly on inane repetitive riffs, the songs in Fame have a clear-cut theme, what success is like, and something to say about it that makes a lot of sense. Productionwise, the CD is also a gem. This is no run-of-the-mill dance music you will get rid of at the drop of a new hit by somebody else. The mix is excellent and everything that went into the tracks were obviously well-thought out decisions and that means from the choruses to the fade-outs.

Fame also includes Love Game, Paparazzi, Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say), Beautiful Dirty Rich, The Fame, Money Honey, Starstruck feat. Space Cowboy and Flo Rida, Boys Boys Boys, Paper Gansta, Brown Eyes, I Like It Rough, Summerboy and as a bonus track Disco Heaven. Lady GaGa is also one of the featured artists in the soundtrack of the motion picture Confessions of A Shopaholic where she performs Fashion.

The Top 200 Albums of the week as per Billboard Magazine are Fearless by Taylor Swift; Uncle Charlie by Charlie Wilson; The Fray by The Fray; Dark Horse by Nickelback; I Am... Sasha Fierce by Beyoncé; Intuition by Jamie Foxx; Testimony: Volume 2 Love & Politics by India.Arie; 808s & Heartbreak by Kanye West; Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; and The Fame by Lady GaGa.

The Top 10 tunes in the Hot 100 Singles list are Right Round by Flo Rida feat. Kesha; Dead and Gone by T.I. feat. Justin Timberlake; Heartless by Kanye West; Gives You Hell by The All-American Rejects; Crack a Bottle by Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent; Poker Face by Lady GaGa; Just Dance by Lady GaGa feat. Colby O’Donis; Love Story by Taylor Swift; Kiss Me Thru the Phone by Soulja Boy Tell’em feat. Sammie; and My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson.