Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on the “Mother Monster” of all her “Little Monsters,” Lady Gaga.

Born in Manhattan, New York City in 1986, Lady Gaga was born to parents Cynthia, a philanthropist and Joseph an internet entrepreneur.

As a child she took piano lessons which taught her to create music by ear, rather than just reading sheet music. Her parents encouraged her music and enrolled her in a Creative Arts Camp. Her journey was immersive playing at open mic nights, acting in plays and studying method acting at the Lee Strasburg Theatre and Film Institute for ten years.

Her screen debut was a background appearance in the 2000 music video for AC/DC’s song “Stiff Upper Lip.” She also had a small background role as a student in a 2001 episode of The Sopranos.

She withdrew from music school in 2005 to pursue her music career and in just three years later in 2008 released her debut album “The Fame” which featured the mega hits “Just Dance,” “Bad Romance,” and “Poker Face.” Her follow-up album was “Born This Way” in 2011 and incredibly by this time she was the world’s highest paid female musician and the most powerful celebrity according to Forbes.

She branched out further in 2018 when she starred alongside Bradley Cooper in “A Star is Born” where she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Shallow.”

Lady Gaga is a pop culture icon with her influence spanning music, theatre, film, fashion, dance, and activism. She is constantly evolving and continues to inspire and influence millions around the world.

Today’s mnemonic will be on Lady Gaga’s top six songs

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

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Wikipedia Summary

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta[a] (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influential figure in popular music.

After signing with Interscope Records in 2007, Gaga achieved global recognition with her debut album, The Fame (2008), and its reissue The Fame Monster (2009). The project scored a string of successful singles, including "Just Dance", "Poker Face", "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro".

Her second full-length album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold more than one million copies first-week. Its title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than a week.

Following her electronic dance music-influenced third album, Artpop (2013), she pursued jazz on the album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett, and delved into soft rock on the album Joanne (2016).

Gaga also ventured into acting, gaining praise for her leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016) and the films A Star Is Born (2018) and House of Gucci (2021). Her contributions to the A Star Is Born soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first woman to win an Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy Award in one year.

Gaga returned to dance-pop with her album Chromatica (2020), which yielded the number-one single "Rain on Me". She reunited with Bennett for their second and final collaborative album, Love for Sale (2021), and revisited her early pop sound on the album, Mayhem (2025), which contains the chart-topping single "Die with a Smile".

Having sold an estimated 170 million records, Gaga is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the only female artist to have four singles each sell at least 10 million copies globally.

Six of her studio albums debuted atop the US Billboard 200. According to Forbes, she was the world's highest-paid female musician and the most powerful celebrity in 2011, while Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 and 2019.

She has been ranked among the greatest artists of all time by various publications. Her accolades include 14 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, 18 MTV Video Music Awards, and a recognition from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gaga]

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Mnemonic

Lady Gaga – Top 6 Songs Mnemonic – PoP BoT Stefani Joanne

(Picture Stefani Joanne, which are the first two names of ‘Lady Gaga’, as a Pop Bot of the music industry pumping out hit after hit)

1. Paparazzi

2. Poker Face

3. Bad Romance

4. The Edge of Glory

5. Shallow

6. Just Dance

Five Fun Facts

1. Lady Gaga came from a musical family and began playing the piano at the age of four. By the age of 13 she had written her first piano ballad. She went on to be a classically trained pianist, studying at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She did not graduate though, dropping out after two years to pursue her music career.

2. Her sobriquet “Lady Gaga” came from the Queen song “Radio Gaga” when her producer, Rob Fusari, called her Gaga after he heard her sing the Queen hit and thought that her voice and style reminded him of the song. The actual word Gaga can mean anything from ‘Demented, crazy, or extreme enthusiasm’ while in Filipino means ‘stupid or fool.’

3. One of Lady Gaga’s most iconic moments came in 2010 when she wore a dress made entirely of raw meat at the MTV Video Music Awards. Now this wasn’t to promote tartare or fight against veganism, but to protest against the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Apparently, she wanted to beef up the conversation and raise the steaks and make a statement that was both shocking and thought provoking to promote equal rights.

4. Lady Gaga’s army of followers are affectionately called “Little Monsters.” She started to use the name during her live performances in 2009 when her fans would aptly crawl and scream. This then led to the Monster Claw or Paw which is used to either greet or agree with one another. The “Mother Monster” (Gaga) has also used this claw symbol in her music and also has it tattooed on her back.

5. Lady Gaga has won many awards but the one that will go down in history is her being the first woman to win all the big four awards in a single year. That is an Oscar, a Grammy, a Bafta, and a Golden Globe.

Along with this, three of her songs have reached Diamond status. Just for anyone that doesn’t know what diamond status is, it is when a track has gone platinum ten times. She has achieved this with “Bad Romance,” “Poker Face,” and “Just Dance.”

And apparently, according to the grapevine Lady GaGa and the GooGoo Dolls are coming out with a children's album. I don’t know too much about it, but according to sources apparently, it’s called GooGooGaGa!