Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. Both of her parents have Italian ancestry, and she also has more distant French-Canadian roots.

At age four, her mother insisted she become "a cultured young woman," so she started piano lessons and continued through her childhood. The lessons taught her to create music by ear, which she preferred over reading sheet music.

After a fan referred to her as Mother Monster, Gaga started using the term herself. Naturally, her fans became Little Monsters. Both, Gaga and her Little Monsters use the terms Monsterlove, Monsterhugs or Monsterkisses to show their compassion for each other.

Gaga's very first tattoo was a treble clef at the center of her lower back. She got this tattoo when she was only 17 years old and used a fake ID because she was underage.

Don't be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you're broke or evergreen
You're black, white, beige, chola descent
You're Lebanese, you're Orient
Whether life's disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied, or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
'Cause baby you were born this way

While establishing herself as an artist and working her way up through the New York underground club scene, Gaga released The Fame is an electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop album that explores Gaga's quest for fame, while also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs, and sexual identity.

In May 2006, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta began dating producer Rob Fusari, who claims he was the first person to call her "Lady Gaga", which he derived from the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga".

She wore a dress made of raw beef, which was supplemented by boots, a purse, and a hat also made out of raw beef. Partly in recognition of the dress, Vogue named her one of the Best Dressed people of 2010 and Time named the dress the Fashion Statement of the year.

At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga appeared in drag as her greasy, lewd, male alter ego, Jo Calderone, physically transforming herself with a swoop of black hair and sideburns, and delivering a lovesick monologue before a performance of her song "You and I".

She wrote "Born This Way" in ten minutes and compared the process to an Immaculate Conception.