Lady Gaga: "The more successful I became, the more I needed others to tell me I was great"

“I wish I could give all the artists in the world the opportunity to live a week of my life,” declares the singer, who at this moment says she is focused only on carrying out her work without distractions.Mario Sorrenti (Dom Pérignon)

“I felt that I had to change my clothes, but in the end I present myself as I am: an artist.

And this is how I dress when I work or when I'm with my musician, director or actor friends.

I felt safe to come like this and be myself, and I think this is me offering my cultural self.”

Lady Gaga presents herself without artifice in the luxurious penthouse room of The West Hollywood Edition Hotel, on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

She is wearing a black jacket, a white T-shirt with superimposed straps, ripped jeans, green socks, black flat loafers, her hair tied up, large black horn-rimmed glasses and she barely senses makeup, although her lips are more voluminous than when the world met her in 2008. , year in which

, the first success of many.

None of the fantasy wardrobe for which he stood out at the beginning of his career.

She says that she has been locked up in her studio all day creating music, and for that she has to be comfortable.

At that time, more than one would have preferred that she arrive at the meeting directly from the filming of

, a film that will be released in October 2024 and in which she puts herself in the shoes of the cheeky and impulsive Harley Quinn sharing the spotlight with Joaquin Phoenix, again in the role that gave him the Oscar for best actor in 2020.

There is a detail that Lady Gaga (New York, 36 years old) has not neglected to appear before the small group of journalists: in her hand, a glass of Dom Pérignon, the champagne brand with which she collaborated in 2021 and with which she now repeat.

In this case, for the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 campaign, which is revealed after almost a decade of maturation in the cellars of the Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers abbey, in the Champagne region of France.

She is the protagonist of an artistic

in which she explores the importance of work in the creative process, whether it is to make a song or a bubbly liquid.

Work and introspection will be the guiding thread of a conversation in which Lady Gaga seems to have put aside her character and her effect.

At least for now.

“This idea of ​​introspection…I think that's where I am now in my own art.

I really like to reflect, and I think that reflecting is different from speaking, doing, saying and arguing.

Reflecting requires real time and truth,” she says in a soft, unhurried voice.

“It's really nice when you work with people who aren't trying to make you into something.

I can't tell you how many times in my career there have been people trying to dress me up like a doll or do something they wanted me to do,” she continues.

In the case of the collaboration with the French winery, this was not the case.

“They said, 'We want to capture the artist in that beginning moment, the introspective spirit, and then the creative process, and here are the various ways that we think we can show that.'

And then we just really enjoy each other."

The artist in an image from the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 campaign. Mario Sorrenti (Dom Pérignon)

He speaks with admiration and affection of the Dom Pérignon team, especially Vincent Chaperon, the winery's chef de cave.

Ultimately responsible for one of the limited bottles of it (the price is around 250 euros) has perfect harmony.

He is in charge of adapting the winery to changing times, especially climatic conditions —there is a year that he has etched in his mind: 2003, the first in which the harvest was done in the month of August.

The admiration is mutual, and that until their meeting in Los Angeles they had only known each other electronically since they began working together in 2021. Pandemic things.

“It's been frustrating working with Gaga only via Zoom,” Chaperon says with a laugh.

“It has been super nice to be able to toast with her in person.”

“There are two Lady Gaga, or four or five…”, he laughs again.

“There is the Gaga who is on stage and the one who is behind the cameras.

We had these contacts by Zoom and long distance, and when you see her you feel that she is deep, authentic.

You don't need a lot of time to feel people, and she is a precious person.

Different from the artist”, describes her who says she enters the vineyards as a dancer puts one foot on the stage.

“She is reinventing herself every time, so are we”, she points out about the choice of a union starring in the past by Lenny Kravitz or Ferran Adrià.

It is described by those who say they enter the vineyards as a dancer puts one foot on the stage.

“She is reinventing herself every time, so are we”, she points out about the choice of a union starring in the past by Lenny Kravitz or Ferran Adrià.

It is described by those who say they enter the vineyards as a dancer puts one foot on the stage.

“She is reinventing herself every time, so are we”, she points out about the choice of a union starring in the past by Lenny Kravitz or Ferran Adrià.

“I know a lot of artists or celebrities work with brands and do collaborations, but it's really important to me to work authentically with people.

It is my way of being.

I can't do it any other way.

I love working with them.

Vincent is amazing.

They are inspiring… And they always welcome my friends who are artists”, explains Lady Gaga.

On this occasion, the invited friends have been three: Yoann Lemoine, alias Woodkid, has directed the campaign and composed the music;

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has devised the choreography for the promotional video, and the Italian Mario Sorrenti signs the photos.

And there is a fourth cameo: part of the wardrobe that she wears has been designed by the singer's sister, Natali Germanotta.

“I love collaborating with people.

It's good to work when you have someone who controls your own ego,

In any case, she is currently in a vital moment in which she claims to be more interested in experiencing solitude.

“It's really nice to have time to be alone and know that you are enough.

I wish I could say that to my younger self.

I did it anyway when I was younger, I spent a lot of time alone writing music.

But the more successful I got, the more I felt like I needed other people to tell me I was great,” she opens up.

Before going out and being seen by Hollywood, now she prefers to stay working at home, because that is her thing;

working is what she, she insists, really makes her happy.

“I also love a lot of different types of art, and I do a lot of different ones.

I don't know if anyone might think that I do them all well, but I like to do it anyway.

The start of something new is always different.

Sometimes it's an idea that occurs to me in the moment, just from being with people.

Sometimes it's when I'm alone, sometimes it's a poem I can write or read.

Sometimes I just want to play the piano.

Sometimes I hear a melody in my head and sing it out loud and then record it really fast.

And other times someone might come to me with an idea and say, 'What do you think?'

“It's good to work when you have someone controlling your own ego,” says Lady Gaga.

In the previous double and in this one, the artist and the dancers, in images of the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 campaign. Mario Sorrenti (Dom Pérignon)

He has as many ways to create as artistic personalities.

It seems that he has never wanted to settle.

Over the years, she has changed characters, transforming herself through theatrics, from a beginning in which she was postulated — or was postulated — as the next pop diva to her alter ego as a man, Jo Calderone, or her version female of a crooner with his collaboration and friendship with Tony Bennett.

“The only constant in life is change,” she has said in the past.

Now that only constant for her is working to be better.

So what does creative work mean for Lady Gaga,

of the Bell?

It could be summed up in that he does not believe much in luck.

“It means you need to work hard.

Not wanting to sound rude… it's not just about taking a photo of yourself with your iPhone.

You have to get down to business.

You have to investigate the pictures.

You have to watch movies, you have to read poetry, you have to read books, you also have to have a talk with yourself about being innovative.

Otherwise anyone can make art nowadays.

I think this campaign is about those of us who have made creating art our life mission.

Today I spent all day making art, all day.

And it's a labor of love.

And I think it's important to do that because it's a real privilege to create art.

So you have to work hard because some people don't have that privilege."

She began working to earn the privilege of being able to make a living from art in her teenage years on New York's Lower East Side.

Times that she remembers with a certain nostalgia because, according to her, art and culture are currently going through difficult times.

“I think there's a difference between doing artistic things and then being in an art culture, I mean, an art culture, artists spending time together, talking to each other, creating together.

It's not about status, it's about work.

I wish I could give all the artists in the world the opportunity to live a week of my life.

And she continues with a speech in which she leaves as much nostalgia as emotion: “When I was 18 years old, on the Lower East Side I had many artist friends and nobody knew who we were except for each other.

And we used to put on shows in venues just for each other and show our works, like paintings, photographs, poems, music, performing arts.

And no one, no one, knew who we were.

We didn't have social media, we just had Myspace."

She is now followed by 53.5 million people on Instagram (she only follows 90 accounts).

Those were the days when Stefani was still Joanne Angelina Germanotta, of which she has shown only a few small brushstrokes over the years.

She did it especially in her 2017 documentary for Netflix

(title that refers to her height, 1.55 meters).

In it, he showed how he deals with and suffers from fibromyalgia, the anxieties of fame, the break with his then fiancé, the actor Taylor Kinney, or how during a visit to his grandmother's modest apartment in New York he cries when listening to her what was then her new song,

dedicated to her late aunt.

Bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013.Marvin Leuvrey (Dom Pérignon)

“There can be 100 people in a room and 99 don't believe in you.

But you only need one to do it."

This phrase, in different formulas, was repeated over and over again referring to Bradley Cooper – in fact, there are videos on YouTube with montages of several minutes in which she is only heard saying that.

It was during the promotion of

(2018), a film directed and co-starred by the actor that earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress and won the statuette for best song for

.

On March 13, she repeats as a nominee for

, a song from

.

If he wins, maybe it's time to open that bottle of champagne he's keeping at home with a post-it that says, "For my next win."

“I can't drink it unless we've won something.

And he has been there for a while, ”she recounted in the interview before learning what is her fourth nomination.

Now she is the one who wants to be that person who believes in someone's talent.

To celebrate her collaboration, Dom Pérignon hosted a party at the Sheats-Goldstein Residence, a luxurious mansion in Beverly Crest.

Sitting at the table located on the tennis court, guests such as the actors Billy Porter and Alexandra Daddario, the model Cindy Bruna, the artist Maurizio Cattelan, the dancer Isaac Hernández or the Spanish performers Paco León and Milena Smit.

If the monk Dom Pierre Pérignon, credited with creating champagne in the 17th century, said, “I am drinking stars,” that was a night for drinking among them.

But no trace of Lady Gaga at dinner.

She only appeared for a few minutes, and she did it already in her character: with marked black makeup and a dress with a Gothic air designed by the firm of her sister, Topo Studio,

ripped fishnet stockings and platform ankle boots.

And he did it, above all, so as not to miss the performance of his two friends who were entertaining the evening: he listened carefully while Alex Smith, with whom he had been working in the studio that day, played a song on the piano and began to dance with the DJ Hana while she was playing and played some of her songs, like

.

He made a short speech, not a single selfie with anyone.

Perhaps because she feels that she no longer has to be liked by everyone and for her, her job is much more than just being famous.

“For me, an essential part of being an artist is being something that I have to be, that I have to do.

If I wasn't as successful as I am now, and I'm very grateful, I would still be, I'd be on the Lower East Side."