On March 28, 1986, the world was forever changed.
On that day, a legend was born, and while no one knew it at the time, she would go on to break records and change the entertainment industry forever.
The little girl, born to an upper-middle-class Catholic family, was named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. But you probably know her as Lady Gaga.
Born at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, it wasn't long before Gaga would discover her star power.
At just four years old, she began learning piano, at first learning to play by ear before later taking lessons to learn to read sheet music.
By the time she was 11, it was clear to those around her that Gaga was somewhat of a musical prodigy.
As a teenager, she would perform at open mic nights around the city and also played the lead in several plays, including Guys and Dolls and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
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Her career kicked off in 2000 when she was just 14. Although it was small, Gaga landed her first on-screen role, appearing as a background in the music video for AC/DC's Stiff Upper Lip.
She went on to land a few more minor background roles on TV before being granted early admission to the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU) in 2003.
She moved into the dorms and began studying music, only to decide two years later to withdraw from the program to pursue her career.
It's a bold move that's been made by many in a similar position, but very few can say the risk was worth it.
Gaga, however, is one of the very few.
She recorded her first two songs in 2005 to accompany a children's novel and formed a band with friends from NYU.
Playing gigs all across New York City, Gaga – Stefanie Germanotta at the time – became a major name in the city's club scene.
So much so, a talent scout who had come to see her perform at the 2006 New Songwriters Showcase decided to introduce her to the producer who would coin the name Lady Gaga – and later attempt, and fail, to sue her for it.
His name was Rob Fusari. He and Gaga collaborated on songs and soon began dating.
One day, when trying to text her about Queen's song Radio Ga Ga, Fusari's phone auto-corrected to read "Lady Ga Ga".
While Fusari and Gaga's recounts of events aren't identical, the one thing we know for certain is the name stuck, and it would soon become one of the most well-known in the world.
While working on her music with Fusari, Gaga began performing at neo-burlesque shows where she met an artist by the name of Lady Starlight.
As a duo, the pair created a performance art piece called Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue, and by August 2007, they had secured a 3pm performance slot at Lollapalooza.
At this point, Gaga had garnered a small following, sharing her music on her MySpace page, where fans would download MP3 tracks.
Meanwhile, Fusari had been working behind the scenes, sending Gaga's music to record executive Vincent Herbert, who the artist would later credit as the man who "discovered" her.
Gaga and Fusari parted ways professionally and personally when she was signed to Herbert's label, and by 2008, she was well on the way to stardom.
In January, she wrote the song Just Dance in 10 minutes, releasing the track in April and securing her breakthrough hit.
From there, things only went up.
Gaga released her first album, The Fame, on August 19, reaching number one in Canada, the UK, Austria, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, and landing in the top five in Australia and the US.
Her second single Poker Face became the best-selling song in the world for that year, with 9.8 million copies sold worldwide.
By 2009, she had secured small performances on TV shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and began opening for artists such as The Pussycat Dolls.
She embarked on her first tour, The Fame Ball tour, and released The Fame Monster, an extended edition of her first album, including extra songs such as Bad Romance, Alejandro, and Telephone featuring Beyonce.
While she had quickly risen to fame and become a global phenomenon, it wasn't until September 2009 that Gaga would show the world she wasn't just another pop star.
At 23, Gaga took to the stage for her first-ever performance at the Video Music Awards. Four minutes and 27 seconds later, the people in the room realised Gaga was unlike any star they'd seen before.
Gaga performed her hit song Paparazzi, cementing her place in pop-culture history when she delivered a powerful statement on the toxic tabloid culture, at the end falling to the stage as her chest poured with fake blood.
"If I'm gonna be sexy on the VMAs and sing about the paparazzi, I'm gonna do it while I'm bleeding to death and reminding you of what fame did to Marilyn Monroe. And what it did to Anna Nicole Smith," she said in her 2017 documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two.
Gaga became the most downloaded female act in the world in a single year, and The Fame Ball broke the record for the highest-grossing concert tour for a debut artist.
In 2010, she took home her first Grammy wins, going into the ceremony with six nominations and walking out with two wins: best dance recording for Poker Face, and best electronic/dance album for The Fame.
Barely taking a break, Gaga released her next single Born This Way in February 2011, earning her the Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling single on iTunes.
May saw her second album debut at the top of the Billboard charts. The album also eventually secured her another three Grammy nominations.
ArtPop was her third hit album, featuring singles such as Applause and Do What U Want; however, where Gaga's previous two albums had been major successes, ArtPop opened to mixed reviews.
But the critics' thoughts didn't sway Gaga's fandom, known as Little Monsters, with her ArtPop Ball Tour grossing $83 million.
In 2014, she entered her jazz era, releasing a collaborative album with Tony Bennett, which landed her back in the good graces of critics and secured her third Grammy win.
Gaga's next era saw her reinvent her image, shifting from a bold pop star to a more mature artist.
She starred in American Horror Story: Hotel, fulfilling a lifelong goal of becoming an actress and even securing her first Golden Globe award for best actress in a miniseries or television film.
"This is one of the greatest moments of my life," she said during her acceptance speech.
"I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a singer. But music worked out first."
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Gaga went on to prove you can do it all, starring in another season of American Horror Story and releasing her fifth studio album, Joanne, which cemented her as the first woman to top the US Billboard chart four times in the 2010s.
She won another Grammy, embarked on another world tour, and headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in 2017.
While from the outside, 2017 seemed to be somewhat of a comeback year for Gaga after critics' harsh reviews, she revealed years later that behind the scenes, everything was falling apart.
She had been cast as the lead in A Star is Born opposite Bradley Cooper, which was filmed in early 2017.
Straight after wrapping, the star embarked on her Joanne world tour.
In a cover story for Rolling Stone, published in November 2025, Gaga revealed throughout filming for the Oscar-nominated flick, she was using lithium, a mood-stablising drug, to prevent episodes of mania.
Then, while on her world tour, she experienced what she described as a "psychotic break", forcing her to cancel the last 10 dates of the tour, at the time telling fans she was experiencing "severe pain".
"There was one day that my sister said to me, 'I don't see my sister anymore,' " Gaga told the publication.
"And I cancelled the tour. There was one day I went to the hospital for psychiatric care. I needed to take a break. I couldn't do anything … I completely crashed. It was really scary.
"There was a time where I didn't think I could get better.… I feel really lucky to be alive. I know that might sound dramatic, but we know how this can go."
After only taking a short break, Gaga returned to the spotlight ahead of the release of A Star is Born.
Thanks to the film's soundtrack, the star received four Grammy wins, as well as an Academy Award, another Golden Globe, and a Critics Choice Award.
"If you have a dream, fight for it," she declared in her Oscars acceptance speech.
"There's a discipline for passion. And it's not about how many times you get rejected or you fall down or you're beaten up.
"It's about how many times you stand up and are brave and you keep on going."
And "keep on going" is exactly what Gaga did.
From 2020 to 2025, she landed leading roles in House of Gucci and Joker: Folie à Deux, released her sixth and seventh studio albums, Chromatica and Mayhem, embarked on two more world tours, won one Emmy, two Grammys, four American Music Awards and headlined Coachella music festival.
But, Gaga says she couldn't have done it with fiance Michael Polansky by her side.
She met the venture capitalist in 2019, and told Rolling Stone when it comes to recovering from her "psychotic break", Polansky was the key.
"Being in love with someone that cares about the real me made a very big difference," she said.
At the moment, Gaga is on her Mayhem Ball world tour, with the Australian leg set to kick off on December 5, and the album nominated for seven Grammys.
"It was months and months and months of rediscovering everything that I'd lost," she said of creating the album.
"And I honestly think that's why it's called Mayhem. Because what it took to get it back was crazy."
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Title: Stefanie Germanotta went from a musical prodigy to a worldwide phenomenon. This is how it happened
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/lady-gaga-career-explained-history-everything-to-know/55ea7b27-782b-4feb-b195-714e2e810f00
Published Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:11:00 GMT
