Lady Gaga Tickets

Born Stefani Germanotta in New York in 1986, the colourful Lady Gaga exploded onto the world pop scene in 2008 with her debut album The Fame. Prior to that, she'd been a student at the famous NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and an in-house songwriter with Streamline Records, where she was noticed by Akon, and promptly signed to his own label, Kon Live Distribution. Lady Gaga had spent years in New York, honing her burlesque/performance art act, and had even spent a few months in California under the tutelage of L.A. Reid, but she was dropped from his record company after only three months, and she returned to the safety and familiarity of New York.

During her time as songwriter at Streamline, she wrote songs for Britney Spears, NKOTB and Pussycat Dolls, and after being signed by Akon, she collaborated with fellow songwriter and producer, RedOne, and recorded her debut album, The Fame, in 2008, moving back to Los Angeles. The single “Just Dance” had been released months before the album, but hadn't been picked up by any major radio station, and she spent the first half of the year supporting NKOTB on their reunion tour, before “Just Dance” finally hit gold, prompting major sales of the album. The second single, “Poker Face”, hit No.1 in the UK and US in early 2009, and won many awards. Between March and September of that year, she embarked on The Fame Ball Tour, during which she wrote her second album The Fame Monster, about the down side of becoming famous, and which also picked up many major awards and prompted her second world tour, The Monster Ball Tour, which ran for 18 months through to the Spring of 2011.

Born This Way was released in May 2011, the title track having been debuted as a single at the 2011 Grammy Awards. Famous for her extrovert image, and conceptual artistry, Lady Gaga's 2011 concerts at Madison Square Garden, were shown as an HBO TV special and was nominated for five  Emmy Awards. 2011 also saw her begin writing a regular column for “V” magazine, and she indulged her penchant for collaboration, by recording with Elton John, Cher and Tony Bennett.

To the 2010s what Madonna was to the 1980s, Lady Gaga revels in her unconventionality and liberalism, and holds the dubious honour of having the world's largest number of Twitter followers, standing at over 13 million, as of the end of 2011.