The Fame Album • Lady Gaga • 2008

The Fame is the debut studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008, by Interscope Records. After joining Kon Live Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different producers, primarily RedOne, Martin Kierszenbaum, and Rob Fusari. Musically, The Fame is an electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop album that displays influences from 1980s music. Lyrically, it visualizes Gaga's love of fame in general, while also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs, and sexual identity. The album was primarily promoted through The Fame Ball Tour and multiple television appearances, and was reissued as a deluxe edition with The Fame Monster on November 18, 2009. The album received generally favorable reviews from critics, who commended its lyrical content, Gaga's musicianship and vocal ability. It was a commercial success, topping the charts in several countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and Switzerland. In the United States, it peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, and also topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 150 non-consecutive weeks, the most time on top in history. The Fame became the fifth best-selling album of 2009, and has sold over 4.9 million copies in the United States as of January 2019. Combined with The Fame Monster, the album had sold over 18 million copies worldwide as of August 2019. Gaga promoted the album with many television performances, award shows and also in her first headlining tour, The Fame Ball Tour in 2009. The first two singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" gained international success, topping the charts in several countries worldwide including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The subsequent singles "LoveGame" and "Paparazzi" were commercial successes as well, charting within the top-ten of over ten countries worldwide. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" had a limited single release, while "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" and "Boys Boys Boys" served as promotional singles. The Fame has won multiple awards since its release. In the United States, the album was nominated for a total of five Grammy Awards at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album and the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the single "Poker Face", and also won Best International Album at the 2010 Brit Awards. In 2013, Rolling Stone named The Fame as one of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums of All-Time". As of 2018, it is the 12th biggest album of all time on the Billboard 200 in the United States.