we’re all going gaga

Little monsters across Australia are screaming Gaga, as the lady herself tours the country and treats fans to thrills, spills and everything in between.

Whether you love or hate her, everyone has an opinion about the lady who is breaking all the rules of normality. A singer, film maker, fashion diva, gay activist, and number 7 on the Forbes World’s Most Powerful Women, 2010; what exactly is it about Lady Gaga that has us all fascinated?

Simply looking at her, it’s obvious. She thrives on an overwhelmingly different lifestyle to everyday society and her distinct style and philosophies on life are not what you’d usually find lurking in your neighbourhood… But I think her appeal goes much further than that. I think she speaks to young, eccentric people and tells them that it’s okay to be different.

Like most stars, she’s worked hard for fame and wasn’t given popularity overnight. As she says, ‘I left my entire family, found the cheapest apartment and ate shit until someone listened.’

It wasn’t always outfits made of bubbles, origami, and meat for this lady. She was once just a brown haired, innocent girl who had a dream. If you look at old photos, you see Gaga behind the mask; Stefani Germanotta, a struggling musician who looks fearfully into the camera whilst singing her heart out.

A crowd of ten has turned into a crowd of millions, but is this really what she wanted?

There is ever growing pressure to maintain her image, fans that don’t see past the music and fashion, and a loss of personal identity that comes with fame. It must be exhausting.

She is the most searched for celebrity on Google and has the most Twitter and Facebook subscribers, but no one remembers or cares about Stefani.

The Sunday Times accused Gaga of being ‘an identity thief’ and ‘a mainstream manufactured product’. But wait a minute. It’s certainly not uncommon in today’s world of fame to gain inspiration from somewhere. Isn’t every celebrity just a mishmash of past icons and ideas? Pop culture is a machine where ‘products’ come off the conveyer belt everyday to feed society’s cravings for celebrities.

And at least she’s not like every other musician who sounds, looks, and acts the same. Okay, so she does flaunt around in ridiculously skimpy leather outfits, show a lot of skin and gyrate her hips in front of cameras. Like all pop singers, adding a bit of sex appeal is almost as important as singing in tune (if not more). However, where most singers never go past the sex appeal, Gaga does. She can see an importance in speaking up at gay rights protests and in the name of politics, having a distinctly different style, and also has an education in art, religion, social issues and politics.

And the most important thing: she’s not perfect.

To me, she still seems scared and is hiding in a sea of fabric and fame, just lurking behind a need to be looked at. She was beautiful and normal before, being teased and bullied as a child for being too provocative and eccentric. Feeling like a freak in the past, she now openly chooses that lifestyle.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether she has lost her real identity now or gained it.

But either way, she is a free spirit, something that not everyone feels comfortable being. And I think she opens girls up to a life of freedom, expression and following your dreams. And faking it or not, she sure has a unique way of life.