Lady Gaga in Vogue
Lady Gaga is in the March edition of Vogue. The photoshoot, was, um, interesting. Not shocking, just strange as always. She looks like that kid in school who gets their hair cut by their mom.
The interview went as you’d expect and Jonathan, the interviewer, described her perfectly at one point. “Jonathan, wait,” she whined like a teenage girl in need of attention. That’s pretty much what this whole thing is. Now on to the quotes.
On her little monsters:
It is no secret that Lady Gaga has an especially intense relationship with her fans, whom she refers to as her “little monsters.” She has said more than once, “I see myself in them.” Why is that? “I was this really bad, rebellious misfit of a person—I still am—sneaking out, going to clubs, drugs, alcohol, older men, younger men. You imagine it, I did it. I was just a bad kid. And I look at them, and every show there’s a little more eyeliner, a little more freedom, and a little more ‘I don’t give a f**k about the bullies at my school.’ For some reason, the fans didn’t become more Top 40. They become even more of this cult following. It’s very strange and exciting.”
Gaga wants to be your cool, older sister:
“I am quite literally chest open, exposed, open-heart surgery every night on that stage, bleeding for my fans and my music. It’s so funny when people say, ‘It’s amazing to see how hard you work.’ We’re supposed to work hard! I have the world at my fingertips. I am not going to saunter around the stage doing pelvic thrusts and lip-synching. That’s not at all why I am in this. I don’t feel spiritually connected to anyone in Hollywood makeup and a gown with diamond earrings on. I am just a different breed. I want to be your cool older sister who you feel really connected with, who you feel understands you and refuses to judge anything about you because she’s been there.”
Accusations of her ripping off artists is a compliment:
“I could go on and on about all of the people I have been compared to—from Madonna to Grace Jones to Debbie Harry to Elton John to Marilyn Manson to Yoko Ono—but at a certain point you have to realize that what they are saying is that I am cut from the cloth of performer, that I am like all of those people in spirit.”
Her willpower and ability to embellish is second to none:
“I don’t know if you knew this,” she says, “but the other night, in London, I had food poisoning. I was vomiting backstage during the changes.” I had no idea, I say. “Nobody knew,” she says. “I just Jedi mind-tricked my body. You will not vomit onstage.
She’s modest too:
“Speaking purely from a musical standpoint, I think I am a great performer. I am a talented entertainer. I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry. I consider myself to be one of the greatest songwriters. I wouldn’t say that I am one of the greatest dancers, but I am really quite good at what I do.”
The takeaways from the interview are: Lady Gaga is the greatest entertainer of our generation, she’s an outcast just like her fans and the mainstream doesn’t understand her. Basically, she’s just so different and unique. Like a snowflake. It’s okay if you don’t “get” it. She doesn’t really either.
