Is this art or can it make the charts? Lady Gaga answers: both. And sings “Ra ra ah ah ah” to it. The pop icon has married Dada and dancefloor. She will soon be walking down the aisle herself. But before that, she is celebrating her 40th birthday. We queue up to congratulate her and rave about a woman who can do everything. Except boring.
Berlin Fashion Week 2008: it’s five before the breakthrough for one of the biggest stars of the new millennium. But after Michalsky’s fashion show, the Teutonic champagne glass press gossiped about invited guests such as “Tatort” commissioner Andrea Sawatzki and Gaudi House producer Mousse T.. In contrast, hardly anyone says a word about the woman in the canary yellow dress and red hood sitting next to the catwalk and later playing the after-show concert in a former streetcar garage: “Lady Gaga? How do you spell that? Oh, never mind, Barbara Schöneberger has just walked through the door!” It will be the last time that Lady Gaga is not the main event. Six months later, she has two worldwide number 1 hits and pop music has an uncompromising visionary whose art goes far beyond the recording studio.
For God, Gays and Greatness
But at first Stefani Germanotta was someone who is sometimes forgotten in the din of meat counter looks and rain of fire choreography: an outstanding singer. As such, Stefani was a singer who toured smoky clubs and bars in New York City after prematurely dropping out of art school. Even then, Gaga preferred to lend her voice to outsiders, breaking their loneliness in the underground of the Big Apple like bread in church. Bullied as a child for her conspicuous nose and artistic ambitions, Stefani always felt a connection with all those of us who were picked at the bottom of the team in sports class. Because they were too fat, too thin, too queer, too weird. But everyone, everyone was invited to the party when Lady Gaga commanded in her first chart hit: “Just Dance!”
The dance floor was open. The USA had digested 9/11 and was on the verge of electing Hope and Change to the White House. It was the last decade we didn’t have to experience through the screen of a smartphone. Dionysus, Greek god of ecstasy, was our top friend on Myspace. And no one was broadcasting on Instagram how we were pissing drunk against the wall outside the club. Gaga provided the soundtrack to the omnipresent debauchery. And while Katy Perry was kissing and liking a girl in her summer hit shortly beforehand, Gaga had long since left her coat at the checkroom for the pansexual orgy.
But there was more to Lady Gaga’s table bomb than a handful of electro-pop bangers and outfits from the Prêt-à-provocation line. Always more David Bowie than Britney, the singer staged herself as a sophisticated total work of art. Her performances looked as if they had been conceived in a studio rather than calculated in a marketing office. Lady Gaga also mastered the balancing act between commerce and avant-garde on her second album. With “Born This Way” in 2011, she finally became the mother of the LGBTQ movement. The daughter of a Catholic family insisted on their existence and equal rights on the simple grounds that God makes no mistakes in his creation. Checkmate, Christian fundamentalists.
O Say Can You See
Washington, D.C. 2021: The party is over. But Lady Gaga sings on. This time in front of the world. Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States in front of the US Capitol. As a highlight, Gaga performs the American national anthem. Above her heart, she wears a golden brooch by Schiaparelli in the shape of a dove of peace. A nation reeling from a pandemic and mass protests against racially motivated police violence needs new courage. In these barely three minutes, it is, perhaps, within reach. The scene is a symbolic highlight in Stefani Germanotta’s career. But within four years, the flight of the dove of peace finally ends on the windshield of a cybertruck with a MAGA sticker on the back.
Oscar, Tony & Michael
By the time of the presidential inauguration, Gaga was no longer just the First Lady of Pop. Two years earlier, she had been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role in “A Star is Born” and won an Academy Award in the song category. Also in 2019, Gaga founded the cosmetics brand Haus Labs, whose range now includes over 120 products. Last December, her Born This Way Foundation donated 5 million dollars to charities that focus on the mental health of children and young people.
The artist also survived crises in her core business. After critics and fans reacted cautiously to her third album “Artpop”, Gaga concentrated on what she had always been: an outstanding singer. She released the introspective, folky work “Joanne” and helped jazz legend Tony Bennett achieve a renaissance as a duet partner. At times, however, Stefani also withdrew completely from the public eye in order to deal with physical and psychological setbacks. “Chromatica” marked her return to the disco scene in 2020 and “Mayhem”, released last year, perfected the formula: The naive light-heartedness from the “Just Dance” era had evaporated. Here was someone singing who had bruised their knees on the dancefloor and wasn’t afraid to showcase the emotional scars of the past in the spotlight.
Now, shortly before her 40th birthday, Lady Gaga is on her most successful world tour to date with “The Mayhem Ball”. An opera house serves as the backdrop – where art has soared to the greatest drama for centuries. Gaga is assisted by Michael Polansky as creative consultant. Her mother set Stefani up with the entrepreneur in 2020, the couple announced their engagement last year and recently announced their imminent marriage. The triumph of “Mayhem” and its concert tour show that her private happiness only inspires the artist even more creatively. And so the Queen song that once inspired Lady Gaga’s artist name could prove to be right: “You had your time, you had the power, you’ve yet to have your finest hour.”
Icons of Style: Lady Gaga
If the Met Gala were an Olympic discipline, Lady Gaga would have more gold medals than America’s basketball players. But it wasn’t just at the fashion summit that the singer’s looks repeatedly caused a sensation. In this richly illustrated book, fashion journalist Kristen Bateman analyzes the most outstanding outfits and inspires you to be more daring with your own wardrobe.
Kristen Bateman, “Icons of Style: Lady Gaga”, Hachette, 224 pages, approx. 30.-, hachette.co.uk
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Photos: © pa picture alliance (dpa)
Also legendary and iconic: Dolly Parton.
