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.
The Fame Monster is a reissue of American singer Lady Gaga's debut studio album, The Fame (2008), and was released on November 18, 2009, through Interscope Records. Initially planned solely as a deluxe edition reissue of The Fame, Interscope later decided to release the eight new songs as a standalone EP in some territories. The decision was also because Gaga believed the re-release was too expensive and that the albums were conceptually different, describing them as yin and yang. The deluxe edition is a double album featuring the eight new songs on the first disc and The Fame on the second disc. A super deluxe edition was released on December 15, 2009, holding additional merchandise, including a lock from Gaga's wig.
An electropop record, The Fame Monster has influences of disco, glam rock, and synthpop music of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as industrial and gothic music. The album was also inspired by fashion shows and runways. According to Gaga, the album deals with the darker side of fame, with its theme lyrically expressed through a monster metaphor. The cover artwork, shot by Hedi Slimane, has a Gothic theme and was declined for release by her record company, but Gaga persuaded them.
The Fame Monster received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album charted as The Fame in some countries, and topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, and Poland. In the United States, the EP reached number five on the Billboard 200 and topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart. The album has won multiple awards since its release. It was nominated in a total of six categories at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, including Gaga's second consecutive Album of the Year nomination. It won three, including Best Pop Vocal Album.
"Bad Romance", the album's lead single, was a commercial success, topping the charts in more than twenty countries and reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. The next two singles, "Telephone" and "Alejandro", reached the top ten in multiple countries worldwide. "Dance in the Dark" was released as a single only in select territories, achieving moderate chart success. To promote the album, Gaga embarked on The Monster Ball Tour (2009–2011), which became the highest-grossing tour in history by a debut headlining artist.
Born This Way is the second studio album by American singer Lady Gaga, released by Interscope Records on May 23, 2011. It was co-written and co-produced by Gaga with several producers, including RedOne and Fernando Garibay, who had previously worked with her. She also worked with artists such as E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons and Queen guitarist Brian May.
The music of Born This Way stems from the synth-pop and dance-pop styles of her previous material while incorporating different forms of instrumentation from that on her previous releases, such as electronic rock and techno. It features a broader range of genres, such as opera, heavy metal, disco, house, and rock and roll, while its lyrical topics include sexuality, religion, freedom, feminism, and individualism. Despite divided opinions among religious and conservative commentators, the album was well received by music critics, who praised the varying musical styles and Gaga's vocals. Several music publications included the album in their year-end best-of lists. Born This Way received three Grammy Award nominations, including Gaga's third consecutive nomination for Album of the Year. In 2020, Rolling Stone included it at number 484 in their updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Born This Way debuted atop in various major music chart worldwide, including the Billboard 200. In the United States, the record sold more than one million copies in its first week—the highest first-week album sales in five years; an estimated 440,000 copies were sold on Amazon in two days of its first week at a price of 99 cents. Four of the album's singles—"Born This Way", "Judas", "The Edge of Glory", and "You and I"—charted in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, where "Born This Way" became the 1,000th song to reach the number one spot since the inauguration of the chart in 1958. At the time of its release, the title track was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history. A promotional single from the album, "Hair", also managed to chart in sixteen countries, peaking at number 12 in the United States. The album's fifth official single, "Marry the Night", charted within the top-thirty in the United States. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Born This Way was the third global best-selling album of 2011. As of 2021, it has more than 5.8 billion global streams, 5.2 million physical copies sold and 31 million digital tracks sold.
Gaga has performed songs from the album on different occasions, including the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards and the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, as well as in other events and on worldwide television, including her third headlining concert tour, Born This Way Ball (2012–2013). In November 2011, Born This Way, and its remix album, Born This Way: The Remix, were packaged as a compilation album titled Born This Way: The Collection. On May 28, 2021, Gaga announced Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary, "a special anniversary release" of the album featuring six renditions of Gaga's songs by artists of the LGBT community.
Artpop is the third studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on November 6, 2013, by Streamline and Interscope Records. Gaga began planning the project in 2011, shortly after the launch of her second effort, Born This Way. Work continued until 2013 while Gaga was traveling for her Born This Way Ball tour and recovering from surgery for an injury she had sustained while touring. Gaga described Artpop as "a celebration and a poetic musical journey" and an exploration of the "reverse Warholian" phenomenon in pop culture. It displays an intentional "lack of maturity and responsibility" by comparison to the darker and anthemic nature of Born This Way.
Gaga collaborated with various producers on the record, including DJ White Shadow, Zedd and Madeon. Musically, Artpop is an EDM and synth-pop album, with influences from R&B, techno, industrial, and dubstep, among other genres. The themes of the album revolve around Gaga's personal views of fame, sex and self-empowerment; references include Greek and Roman mythology. It also features guest vocals from T.I., Too Short, Twista, and R. Kelly. In 2019, as a reaction to the documentary Surviving R. Kelly, Kelly's featured song, "Do What U Want", was removed from all streaming and online versions and new vinyl and CD pressings of the album.
The release of Artpop was prefaced by a two-day album release party dubbed ArtRave. The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics, although it was included in several year-end lists by critics and publications. It debuted at number one on the United States' Billboard 200 albums chart with first-week sales of 258,000 copies, becoming Gaga's second consecutive number one record in the country. It also topped national record charts in five additional countries and charted within the top ten in over 20. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Artpop was the ninth global best-selling album of 2013 with 2.3 million copies worldwide. The album sold 2.5 million units as of July 2014. Despite this, the album was considered by some as a commercial failure compared to Gaga's previous albums.
"Applause" was released as the lead single from Artpop on August 12, 2013, and was a critical and commercial success, charting within the top ten in more than 20 countries worldwide, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. The second single, "Do What U Want", was made available on October 21, reaching number 13 in the US. It was followed by promotional singles "Venus" and "Dope" shortly before the album's release. "G.U.Y." was the third and last single released from the album. Gaga promoted Artpop with several television appearances and performances, including her second Thanksgiving Day special. After a short residency at Roseland Ballroom, she embarked on her fourth headlining concert tour, ArtRave: The Artpop Ball.
Cheek to Cheek is the first collaborative album by American singers Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, released on September 19, 2014, by Columbia and Interscope Records. It is Bennett's fifty-eighth studio album, and Gaga's fourth. The two first met at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City in 2011, and later recorded a rendition of "The Lady Is a Tramp" together, after which they began discussing plans of working on a jazz project. Cheek to Cheek consists of jazz standards by popular composers such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin. It was inspired by Bennett and Gaga's desire to introduce the songs to a younger generation, since they believed these tracks have a universal appeal.
In January 2013, the album was announced by both artists and started its recording process after Gaga recovered from a hip surgery. It was recorded in New York City, where Bennett and Gaga were accompanied by a live band and jazz musicians associated with both artists. Gaga deviated from her previous contemporary pop albums as she wanted instead to create a jazz record. The release date of the album was delayed multiple times, and the final date was announced by Bennett and Gaga on The Today Show. The full-length track listing and cover artwork was released thereafter; including the track lists for many alternate editions. The artists promoted Cheek to Cheek through multiple performances in and around New York, a "behind the scenes" program detailing the recording of the album on the Home Shopping Network (HSN), and a televised concert titled Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, which aired on PBS in October 2014. The album was preceded by the release of two singles: "Anything Goes" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love", which both reached number one on Billboard's Jazz Digital Songs Chart in the United States.
Cheek to Cheek received generally positive reviews upon release, with critics praising the vocal chemistry between Bennett and Gaga. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, the album won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Cheek to Cheek debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, with 131,000 copies sold in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has since sold 773,000 copies in the United States. The album became Bennett's second number-one album and Gaga's third consecutive number-one in the US; Gaga became the first female artist in the country to have three number-one albums in the 2010s decade, while Bennett extended his record as the oldest artist to achieve a number-one album on the chart. The album also reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, Greece, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The duo's second collaborative album, Love for Sale, was released on September 30, 2021.
Joanne is the fifth studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on October 21, 2016, by Streamline and Interscope Records. Gaga, Mark Ronson and BloodPop handled its production aside variety other collaborators, such as Kevin Parker, Emile Haynie, Jeff Bhasker and Josh Homme. Musically, Joanne is a stripped-down, pop rock, soft rock, and dance-pop record with country elements, aimed to focus on Gaga's vocals. Lyrically, the album delves into the theme of family and life's emotions; the death of Gaga's aunt Joanne Stefani Germanotta deeply influenced the record.
The release and promotion of the album marked a softening of Gaga's image, who took on a more singer-songwriter-oriented look, consisting mainly of a pink, wide-brimmed cowgirl hat, vintage denim and pastel colors, evoking the 1970s. The singer's experience working on the television series American Horror Story influenced Joanne's creative process. To promote the album, three singles were released: "Perfect Illusion", "Million Reasons" and the title track. "Perfect Illusion" was released as the album's lead single on September 9, 2016, and reached number one in France, while "Million Reasons" reached number four in the United States. A piano version of the title track was released to radio in selected territories as the album's third single. Gaga promoted the album with her Joanne World Tour which began in August 2017 and ended in February 2018.
Joanne received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised Gaga's musical direction, vocals, production and lyrical content, but had ambivalent reactions for its lack of cohesiveness. It became Gaga's fourth consecutive album to reach number one in the United States and also topped the charts in Brazil, Mexico, the international charts of Japan and Korea, as well as reached the top ten in over 25 countries. It earned certifications in some of them. Joanne was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Two of its singles, "Million Reasons" and "Joanne" were nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance, for which the latter won the award.
A Star Is Born is the soundtrack album to the 2018 musical film of the same name, performed by its stars Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. It was released on October 5, 2018, by Interscope Records. Cooper teamed up with Gaga's recurring collaborator DJ White Shadow, and an assortment of country musicians, including Lukas Nelson, who also stars in the film as a member of Cooper's band. The soundtrack also includes contributions from Jason Isbell, Mark Ronson, Diane Warren, and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow.
The soundtrack is a pop and blues rock album containing songs about love and its struggles. Commercially, the album has topped the charts in more than 15 countries, attaining gold and platinum certifications from many of them, while selling over six million copies worldwide as of June 2019. The track "Shallow" was released as the soundtrack's lead single on September 27, 2018, while "Always Remember Us This Way" and "I'll Never Love Again" also received a limited release in selected countries.
A Star Is Born was nominated for a total of seven Grammy Awards, winning Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Song Written for Visual Media for the song "Shallow", and a year later Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and another Best Song Written for Visual Media, this time for "I'll Never Love Again (Film Version)". It also won Best Film Music at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards. In just over a year, the soundtrack managed to become the 33rd biggest album of the 2010s on the US Billboard 200.
Chromatica is the sixth studio album by American singer Lady Gaga, released on May 29, 2020, by Interscope Records and subsidiary Streamline. Gaga supervised the production with longtime collaborator BloodPop and a variety of other producers to create a concept album returning to her dance-pop roots, eschewing the stripped-down style of its predecessors Joanne (2016) and A Star Is Born (2018). Chromatica draws inspiration from 1990s house music, seeing Gaga adopt a cyberpunk-inspired persona.
The album centers on ideas of unwavering happiness and the pursuit of healing. Songs on Chromatica encompass themes inspired by failed romance and mental health struggles in Gaga's private life. The music is distinguished by dense synthesizers, percussion, grooves, and orchestral arrangements that merge overarching melodies. Blackpink, Ariana Grande, and Elton John contribute guest vocals. Most of the recording took place at Henson Recording Studios and Gaga's in-home Hollywood Hills studio. Interscope advertised Chromatica through product endorsements and TV partnerships, part of a more aggressive marketing campaign that was adversely affected in the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chromatica Ball concert tour is scheduled to take place in summer 2022 after being postponed twice due to the pandemic.
Four singles supported the album, including the US Billboard Hot 100 top-five entry "Stupid Love", and "Rain on Me" with Grande, which marked Gaga's fifth number one song on the chart. "911" and "Free Woman" were released as singles in select countries. Chromatica was well received by music critics; the craftsmaship and treatment of the subject matter were praised, though the house production drew criticism. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, Chromatica was a candidate for Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Rain on Me" earned Gaga's second Best Pop Duo/Group Performance win. The album topped the charts in various countries, including the US, where it marked Gaga's sixth consecutive number-one on the Billboard 200. A remix album of Chromatica, titled Dawn of Chromatica, featuring an array of artists, was released on September 3, 2021.
Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary, also referred to as Born This Way Reimagined, is the re-issue of American singer Lady Gaga's second studio album Born This Way (2011). Released on June 25, 2021, by Interscope, it features "six reimaginings of the album's songs by artists representing and advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community."
On May 28, 2021, five days after the album's tenth anniversary, Gaga announced Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary, set to be released on June 25. She originally announced that the reissue will be released on June 18, however, it was delayed by a week due to unknown reasons. It includes the album's original 14 tracks and an additional disc with six covers by artists representative of the LGBT community. A rendition of "Judas" by American rapper Big Freedia was released as the first single on May 28, 2021. Exclusive merchandise celebrating the album's tenth anniversary was also announced. Three more singles were released prior the album's debut, "Born This Way" (The Country Road Version) by Orville Peck on June 4, "Marry the Night" by Kylie Minogue on June 11, and "The Edge of Glory" by Years & Years on June 22. On June 8, Gaga's beauty brand, Haus Laboratories, launched the Bad Kid Vault, a limited-edition makeup box set including 16 products.
Critical reception
Writing for Pitchfork, Owen Myers praised the album with a rating of 7.9 out of 10. He called it "an enormous, bravura flex of electronic pop", while stating that "on her best front-to-back album, Gaga belts each crushing hook with every fiber of her chest, with personal pain turned into placard-ready manifestos. She sings like she's making a blood pact." Mike Wass of Variety thought The Tenth Anniversary's bonus disc "sounds a little scattershot", and opined that it was a missed opportunity to include new versions of album tracks "Bad Kids" and "Government Hooker". He added that "where the reissue really succeeds is in reminding us that great pop music challenges the status quo and shines a light on broader issues."
Love for Sale is the second collaborative album by American singers Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, released on September 30, 2021, by Columbia and Interscope Records. It is the sixty-first and final studio album of Bennett's career, and Gaga's seventh. Following Cheek to Cheek (2014), the duo's first collaborative album, Love for Sale was recorded between 2018 and early 2020, consisting of their renditions of various jazz standards by American composer Cole Porter, to whom the record is a tribute.
Upon release, Love for Sale received generally favorable reviews from music critics, most of whom highlighted the vocal chemistry between Bennett and Gaga. The album charted inside the top 10 of albums charts in various countries. On the US Billboard 200, it debuted at number 8 as the duo's second top-10 entry, and garnered Bennett the individual record for the longest span of top-10 albums for any living artist; his first top-10 record was I Left My Heart in San Francisco in 1962. Bennett also broke the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material, at the age of 95 years and 60 days. The album won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, while the track "I Get a Kick Out of You" was nominated for Record of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video.
The album was preceded by the release of two singles: "I Get a Kick Out of You" and the title track. The duo gave a recorded performance at Radio City Music Hall on August 3 and 5, 2021, called One Last Time: an Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, before Bennett retired from performing live. The album's promotion also include the duo's appearance on MTV Unplugged, a documentary called The Lady and the Legend, and solo performances by Gaga, such as her Jazz & Piano residency show and at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
