Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop singer. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.
Released on August 19, 2008, her debut album, The Fame, reached number one in the UK, Canada, Austria, Germany and Ireland as well as accomplishing positions within the top-ten in numerous countries worldwide; in the United States, it peaked at number two on theBillboard 200 chart and topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Its first two singles, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", co-written and co-produced with RedOne, became international number-one hits, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States as well as the charts of other countries. The album, which later earned a total of six Grammy Award nominations, won the awards for Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording for "Poker Face". In early 2009, she embarked on her first headlining tour, The Fame Ball Tour. By the fourth quarter of the year, she had released her EP, The Fame Monster, along with the global chart-topping lead single "Bad Romance", as well as having embarked on her second headlining tour of the year, The Monster Ball Tour. Her second album, Born This Way, is scheduled for release in 2011.