She is a woman who says no man can ever compete with her career, but who still isn't over the ex-boyfriend who said she was too ambitious. She is an outré artist who wanted to be a sensitive singer-songwriter, whose musical heroes include Britney Spears, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen. Who is Lady Gaga? She is a twenty-four-year-old woman whose stage mantra-'I'm a free bitch!'-is the polar opposite of who she is offstage: isolated, insecure, and unable to be alone. She is a once-in-a-decade artist, a gifted singer, composer, designer, and performance artist who mixes high and low culture, the avant-garde with the accessible, authenticity with artifice.
In little over a year, Stefani Germanotta, a struggling performer in New York's Lower East Side burlesque scene, has become the global demographic-smashing pop icon known as Lady Gaga.
I hate the truth so much I prefer a giant dose of bullshit any day over the truth.'-Lady Gaga, 2010
