She’s our girl, that Lady Gaga – not only a cracking musician, singer and show-woman (she wouldn’t have been on at G-A-Y so often otherwise!) but a gay rights warrior who takes no prisoners. On the occasion of her 31st birthday – celebrated this Saturday at G-A-Y – we have 31 facts you may not have known about the Lady they call Gaga. Or maybe you do! Test yourself…
1. Her real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Which actually makes ‘Gaga’ sound sensible.
2. She is estimated to be worth around £220million, meaning she should be able to get her round in.
3. She once had a very small part in iconic TV series The Sopranos. If you’re looking for it, it’s an episode called The Telltale Moozadell. No, us neither.
4. The name Lady Gaga comes from the Queen song Radio Ga Ga. Her producer/boyfriend would always sing it when she walked in and once texted her ‘Radio Gaga’ and predictive text changed it to Lady Gaga. She texted back: ‘Never call me Stefani again!’
5. Before she hit the big time, she appeared as herself in an episode of The City (a follow-up to The Hills), where Whitney has to help her dress for a performance.
6. Her sound was created using glam rock elements she loved in the songs of Queen and Bowie. So she’s basically English…
7. Actually, she’s 75% Italian, 25% French Canadian.
8. Her creative powerhouse Haus of Gaga was modelled on Andy Warhol’s Factory.
9. When Born This Way went straight to number one in America, it was the 1,000th number one in the history of number ones. Don’t worry, we’re not going to say ‘number one’ again.
10. She played herself in The Simpsons in an episode called ‘Lisa Goes Gaga’.
11. Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand have both done it, so it’s only right that Gaga should be getting ready to star – and sing! – in a brand new version of A Star Is Born.
12. ‘There is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me,’ said Gaga. Except us, that is.
13. Her fashion sense comes from Alexander McQueen (a friend), Donatella Versace (her muse), Cher and, erm, Princess Diana, because her mum was obsessed.
14. At the University of South Carolina you can study ‘Lady Gaga and the Sociology of The Fame’. But will it get you a job?
15. The meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Awards had actually been done before. We made a meat bikini brief for the cover of Boyz more than a decade earlier. True story.
16. ‘The turning point for me was the gay community,’ says Gaga. *buffs fingernails*
17. She wrote Born This Way in ten minutes flat. ‘It was like an immaculate conception,’ she says.
18. Money means nothing – nothing! – to Gaga. ‘The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents for their anniversary,’ she told Stephen Fry for the Financial Times.
19. Gaga has been spotted in Balans on Old Compton Street.
20. Gaga’s nicknames are Loopy, Little Mermaid, Rabbit Teeth (though that was more of a bullying one from school), Gagaloo and, of course, Mother Monster. Oh and Marisa, after her favourite actress Marisa Tomei.
21. She lost her virginity at the age of 17 but thinks that even then was too early.
22. Gaga was once mistaken for Amy Winehouse, so she dyed her hair blonde.
23. She is just five foot one, towering over the likes of Madonna and Kylie.
24. Gaga thinks that Britney is the Queen of Pop. She is wrong.
25. If you want to buy her a drink, she’ll have a Jamesons on the rocks. And make it snappy.
26. And if you want to send her flowers, make them white roses.
27. Lady Gaga will not leave her room without full make-up. But then again, who will? We’re not animals!
28. There was once a rumour that Gaga was intersex – neither male nor female but somewhere in between. She didn’t mind but says it’s not true.
29. Her favourite TV character of all time is Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. Again, she is wrong. It’s becoming a habit, Gaga!
30. Lady Gaga appears in the Guinness Book of World Records four times.
31. Lady Gaga does not like kittens. WTLivingF?!
Watch RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 at G-A-Y
From this Saturday (1 Apr) you can watch brand new episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 in the Departure Lounge at G-A-Y at midnight, starting with episodes 1 and 2 this week.
Entry is £3 with a wristband from the G-A-Y Bar.
G-A-Y is at Heaven, Under the Arches, off Villiers Street, London, WC2N 6NG.
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