Prepare to feel old, as it has been 10 whole years since Lady Gaga burst onto the then indie-heavy music scene and made us all fall in love with pop again.
Her debut track ‘Just Dance’ was first released in her native America a decade ago this week, and in the years that have followed, she has cemented herself as one of the biggest stars in the world.
As a result, her every move has been photographed, committed to YouTube or splashed across the front pages, but as we celebrate Mother Monster’s 10 year anniversary, we’ve unearthed some of the less-remembered moments from her momentous career to celebrate the milestone.
Her first UK TV performance
Way back on 18 January 2009, Lady Gaga made her first appearance on UK TV, performing ‘Just Dance’ on an episode of the now-defunct (but also much-missed) ‘Sunday Night Project’, alongside Alan Carr, Justin Lee Collins and Catherine Tate.
While Gaga had released ‘Just Dance’ months earlier in the US, she remained an unknown in the UK until the track was released just before Christmas 2008, going on to knock Alexandra Burke’s ‘Hallejulah’ off the top spot a few weeks later.
NME’s massive U-turn
Like many other ‘pop’ music acts at the time, Gaga found herself criticised by indie obsessives NME, who named her 2011 album ‘Born This Way’ the Most Pretentious Album Ever. She then deepened this rift between them by calling them out about the irony of it all on Twitter.
But fast-forward four years, and Gaga had not only scored a cover interview with them to promote her album ‘Joanne’, but her latest musical efforts proved a hit with the music mag, scoring a four-star review.
Shaving the back of her head to get the most painful tattoo
You may not be able to see it now, but under Lady Gaga’s mane of peroxide blonde hair lies another of her famous inkings.
Back in 2012 at the launch of her debut fragrance, Gaga decided to get a permanent tattoo in memory of photographer Terry Richardson’s late mother on the back of her head, shaving off a large chunk of her hair to have the design etched in front of her guests.
Kendrick Lamar track that never was
Then little-known rapper Kendrick Lemar enlisted Lady Gaga’s help as he prepared to break through into the mainstream in 2012, teaming up with her on duet for his first major label release, ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’.
The result was a song called ‘Partynauseous’, but while it had been heavily trailed, it was pulled at the 11th hour, with Gaga telling fans to “stay tuned”.
While it never went on to get an official release, it later surfaced online, with rumours suggesting it was scrapped due to “creative differences among Kendrick’s team. Gaga then went on to feature it during her ARTPOP Ball Tour.
The other Beyoncé duet
There is not one fan who doesn’t know of Gaga and Beyoncé‘s hit ‘Telephone’ (if you don’t, then you’ve no place calling yourself a fan), but you’d be forgiven for not remembering the other song they teamed up on.
Prior to releasing ‘Telephone’, Gaga featured on Beyoncé‘s sister track ‘Video Phone’, but it only reached number 65 on the US Billboard Charts, faring only slightly better over here, peaking at number 58.
Her obsession with tea cups
Around the time ‘Poker Face’ was released in the UK, Gaga took to carrying a teacup around with her everywhere she went, for reasons that are still no clearer to us nine years on.
Her duet with Cher
Here at HuffPost, we consider ourselves to be among Lady Gaga’s biggest fans, but even we were not aware of the existence of this number.
During the ‘Born This Way’ era, Gaga teamed up with Cher to record a duet called ‘The Greatest Thing’. The song was written by Gaga in 2007 but it never made the cut on any of her albums, and was later handed to Cher as the first single from her 26th album in 2011.
However, two years later, the song still hadn’t seen the light of day, and a frustrated Cher tweeted it out, revealing Gaga had stopped her from releasing it as she didn’t like the edit.
‘Vanity’
This song became a fan favourite when it was performed on The Monster Ball Tour, but that was the most exposure it ever got.
The track originally appeared on the US advance promo edition of ‘The Fame’, but didn’t make the cut when the album was officially released, even being scrapped from the planned UK edition due to its ‘jazzy’ style.
The ‘flying’ dress
‘ARTPOP’ era Gaga was full of off-the-wall ideas, with one of them being the world’s first ‘flying dress’.
After everyone waited with baited-breath to see Lady Gaga soaring through the streets in a meat ensemble, it was officially unveiled at her artRAVE event in 2013. However, when we actually got to see the thing in action, it only lifted her up a few feet in the air. Talk about underwhelming.
Gagavision
During the ‘Fame’, ‘Fame Monster’ and ‘Born This Way’ days, Gaga kept fans up to date on a regular basis with an arty, fly-on-the-wall-style web series called ‘Transmission Gagavision’.
40 episodes were made between 2008 and 2009, and it was later resurrected for four more in 2011, and we have to say, we kinda miss it.
Her feud with The Osbournes
It might seem unlikely now, but there was a time when Gaga was in a very public war of words with Kelly and Sharon Osbourne.
It all started back in 2009, when Kelly called Gaga a “butterface” (whatever that is), and she came in for hateful messages from the singer’s fans. Gaga later penned an open letter calling Kelly out for her work on ‘Fashion Police’, noting it was “rooted in criticism and judgment”. At this point Sharon jumped in and called her a “bully”, as once again, Gaga’s fans had come for Kelly.
Gaga and Sharon later made peace when Gaga appeared on ‘The X Factor’ in 2013 to perform ‘Do What U Want’, and offering up a birthday cake for Kelly. However, this was less well received, with the presenter telling her to ”#EatMyShit”. Charming.
The version of ‘Do What U Want’ we really deserved
Gaga’s decision to team up with R Kelly on 2013′s ‘Do What U Want’ was problematic to say the least, so when she performed the song during an appearance on the US version of ‘The Voice’, she roped in former sparring partner Christina Aguilera to sing it with her.
The result was a triumph, and makes us want to forget the other version ever happened. Sadly though, it is still the original that sticks in most people’s heads.
A video trilogy that is still incomplete
A real bugbear among Lady Gaga’s most hardcore fans is that they are still waiting for the third video in her promised trilogy.
It started with the ‘Paparazzi’ video, with the story continuing into the ‘Telephone’ promo, and ahead of ARTPOP’s release in 2013, Gaga insisted the conclusion to the tale would come as the visual to one of the singles.
Five years later, and its still yet to materialise.
Fozzi
There was a time when the pet pooch of Haus Of Gaga wigmaker and hair stylist Frederic Aspiras was nearly as famous as Gaga was, making a numerous public appearances with her.
However, Fozzi fell out of the spotlight when Gaga got her own dog, Asia (aka BatPig), and we’ve longed for his return ever since.
The Abramovic video
In a truly ‘WTAF?!’ moment, Gaga stripped totally naked for a bizarre video in 2013, showing her practising The Abramović Method, which is described as a series of exercises designed to heighten participants’ awareness of their physical and mental experience in the present moment.
Little did we realise at the time, it would be eclipsed by some of the truly batshit things Gaga served up during the succeeding ‘ARTPOP’ album campaign.
Her Chic cover
During the lull between ‘ARTPOP’ and ‘Joanne’, Gaga teased fans with a return to her disco roots when she teamed up with designer Tom Ford, recording a cover of Chic’s ‘I Want Your Love’ for his new campaign video.
The track received little attention at the time, and is only available to listen to on the advert, but it’s still an injustice it was never officially released if you ask us.
