Singer Lady Gaga, who will be performing at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, today released her new single, "Born This Way," from her upcoming album. Click here to listen!
Find out some fun facts about this record-smashing performer!
20 Things to Know About Lady Gaga
Before she was known to the world as Lady Gaga she was Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, born on March 28, 1986.
Gaga was born and raised in New York City and is the oldest of two girls.
She taught herself how to play piano by ear when she was four years old. Gaga is now a classically trained pianist.
Lady Gaga attended the same private Manhattan high school as Paris and Nicky Hilton - although she says they were never friends.
The singer said in an interview that she was "very dedicated, very studious and very disciplined" when it came to her high school academics, but that she never fit in.
Lady Gaga is left-handed.
Germanotta gained early admission to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2003, where she studied music and lived in the dorms on 11th Street.
Check out footage of Lady Gaga performing in an NYU talent show.
Reaches Her 'Boiling Point'
Stefani appeared on the MTV hidden camera show "Boiling Points"in 2005, where she failed to keep her cool and lost out on $100.
By the second semester of her sophomore year, Gaga dropped out of NYU to pressure her career in music.
Check out footage from 2006 of Stefani (pre Lady Gaga) performing at The Bitter End in New York with her group the "Stefani Germanotta Band."
Record Label Goes Bye Bye!
Gaga was first signed by Def Jam at age 19, but was dropped by the label after only three months.
Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped Stefani write some of her earlier songs, helped create the name Lady Gaga."Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'," Fusari said. "That was her entrance song. Lady Gaga was actually a glitch; I typed 'Radio Ga Ga' in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow 'Radio' got changed to 'Lady'. She texted me back, "That's it." After that day, she was Lady Gaga."
Gaga signed with Interscope Records in 2007 and credits record executive Vincent Herbert as the man who discovered her.
Before becoming a household name, Lady Gaga was writing songs for Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, Fergie and the Pussycat Dolls.
While writing songs at Interscope records, singer-songwriter Akon recognized Gaga's vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. It was then where he convinced Interscope to sign a joint deal for Gaga to sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution.
Her first single "Just Dance" topped the charts in six countries — Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
