MANILA, Philippines - Lady Gaga has earned a Grammy nomination, has been praised by Rolling Stone magazine, and her single Just Dance has reached No. 1 on charts all over the world.
“I was always an entertainer. I was a ham as a little girl and I’m a ham today,” says Lady Gaga, 22, who made a name for herself with the aforementioned single and a song titled Poker Face, not to mention her wild, theatrical, and often tongue-in-cheek “shock art” performance where she strips down to her handcrafted hot pants and bikini top, sets cans of hairspray on fire, and strikes a pose as a disco ball lowered from the ceiling to the orchestral sounds of A Clockwork Orange.
“I always loved rock and pop and theater. When I discovered Queen and David Bowie is when it really came together for me and I realized I could do all three,” says Gaga, who nicked her name from Queen’s song Radio Gaga and who cites rock star girlfriends Peggy Bundy and Donatella Versace as her fashion icons. “I look at those artists as icons in art. It’s not just about the music. It’s about the performance, the attitude, the look; it’s everything. And that is where I live as an artist and that is what I want to accomplish.”
On her debut album, “The Fame,” it’s as if Gaga took two parts dance-pop, one part electro-pop, and one part rock with a splash of disco and burlesque, and generously poured it into the figurative martini glasses of the world in an effort to get everyone drunk with her 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.”
The new album by Lady Gaga, “The Fame,” is available in CD at a special introductory price at Odyssey, Astrovision, Music One and Fully Booked stores. Her songs are also available for download through cell phones via WAP and also through the Internet via www.fliptunes-plus.net.
Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” is under MCA Music Inc.