Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter and actress known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. After performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and later enrolling 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 recording artist Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.Having sold 170 million records as of 2018, Gaga is one of the world'sbest-selling music artistsand the only female artist to achieve four singles that sold at least 10 million copies globally.Her accoladesinclude 13 Grammy Awards, 18MTV Video Music Awards, 16Guinness World Records, awards from theSongwriters Hall of Fameand theCouncil of Fashion Designers of America, and recognition asBillboard's Artist of the Year (2010) andWoman of the Year(2015). She has also been included in severalForbes'power rankings and ranked fourth onVH1'sGreatest Women in Music(2012).Timemagazine named her one of the100 most influential people in the worldin 2010 and 2019 and placed her on their All-Time100 Fashion Icons list.Her philanthropy and activism focus on mental health awareness andLGBT rights; in 2012, she founded theBorn This Way Foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to empower youth, improve mental health, and prevent bullying. Gaga's business ventures includeHaus Labs, a vegan cosmetics brand that launched in 2019.