theoninterview
Did you always know you would make it?Was there ever any doubt? Y’know, I always knew it was my destiny to make music but I am so completely grateful and humbled by the success I’ve had over the past year. I’m really quite floored every day. I am most grateful for my fans. Lady Gaga fans are the best fans in the world. I mean they are the future and I always say to my manager ‘It doesn’t matter how wonderful my show is. What makes my show wonderful is the energy my fans bring’. They’re covered in glitter and they’re all dressed up, they know all the words and they’re smoking weed and they’ve got a Bud Light in one hand and a cigarette in the other and they want to have a good time. (Laughs) And they want to escape and they live for love, art and each other. I’ve heard you say you’ll never lip-synch. Why is that? I have never lip-synched and I never will. I’m so against it and I think it’s really wrong when artists do that. I don’t want to judge but it’s my personal experience that now that I have these number one records. It’s like having a child – where you want to be the best mother that you can be. I want to be the best pop singer that I can be by always singing live and always doing a wonderful job and by
Before you started on the track of being a famous singer you were a songwriter and you wrote for some big names. . . Yes, I wrote for Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block and the Pussycat Dolls. I just love writing music. What is it like working with Britney Spears? I wrote a song for her record called Quicksand and it’s out on the European version. It was great writing for her and she was very sweet and she was very excited to do this song. It’s an honour to do anything for Britney Spears – she is such an iconic pop figure for my generation. It was wonderful. I am very happy. So now you have great success you must be rich. . . No, I plough all my money back into my shows and props. I am rich in props and costumes and fashion. You could say I am the Carrie Bradshaw of pop. I am completely poor but I have a closet full of couture. I read somewhere that you got fined by a cop because your hot pants were too short? Yeah, that’s right. I was outside the Lollapalooza Festival walking to
GONE
being able to sing and dance at the same time and be able to play piano and all those things.
When you were younger was it harder for your family to understand where you were coming from? And more people seem to be getting it now, right? I’ve got really no sense of myself. I really live in my own creative world. So when I do a show I’m like ‘It’s art.’ But I’m actually in a Gstring lighting hairspray on fire and my father’s like ‘Oh my God. She’s completely lost her mind.’ But when you’re in it and you’ve got the clear vision and you see where it’s going it makes complete sense. I come from a very regimented religious background. But I write music about sex and pornography, partying and money. This is who I am, this is what I do and this is what I mean for you to see.”
it and he said that my pants were too short. I guess that they weren’t really pants at all but he got upset and I got like a citation. So I didn’t have to pay anything. But it was really funny because all you saw was this half-naked girl on the street yelling at some cop ‘It’s fashion! I’m an artist!’ It was fun.
You must have a lot of guys throwing themselves at you, what line do you use to let them down easily? I don’t really have a line. I just say no. I give them a good firm ‘No’ before they even get the chance. Do you think you are sexy?
Where were you when you found out you were number one for the first time? I was in my house and I got the call. I just cried. Who is the first person you called?
I am not sexy in the way that Britney Spears is sexy - which is a compliment to her because she’s deliciously good-looking. I just don’t have the same ideas about sexuality that I want to portray. I have a very specific aesthetic – androgyny. I just have a very specific way of seeing things. It’s supposed to be different from everybody.
My mom. She cried. I cried. There were a lot of tears. Happy tears. I love my mom so much. One of my music videos actually pays homage to her. She is a really good Italian woman.
“ I’ve got really no sense of myself. I really live in my own creative world.”