Lady Gaga releases her best cover yet for the ART Pop era and she gives us the 411 on her deoression spell in the cover story.
It's not always easy being Lady Gaga—and in 2013, it was especially difficult. For the first time since she emerged from the New York City club ether in 2008, Planet Gaga seemed in peril. Her latest album, ARTPOP, an experimental R&B-tinged effort featuring artwork by Jeff Koons and a controversial duet with R. Kelly, divided critics. She also endured a very public split with her longtime manager, Troy Carter, just a week before the album's release in November—all of which seemed to knock Gaga out of orbit. But 2014 is a new year, and Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is a space oddity of a pop star. After a brief break around the holidays and some well-documented quality time with her boyfriend, Chicago Fire actor Taylor Kinney (and sporting some remarkable early-winter pantless 'n' plaid looks), Gaga is back to being her most inimitably Gaga, with a sparkling new Versace campaign and her upcoming ArtRave tour, which launches later this spring.
How does one account for such resilience, such triumphant unflappability, in the face of turmoil? Bazaar drew up a Proustian little Gaga questionnaire designed to reveal some of the secrets of her extraordinary Gaga-ness. The Lady kindly obliged by answering honestly and fabulously—and she did not disappoint.
HARPER'S BAZAAR: How have you changed in the past few years?
LADY GAGA: I'm actually not very different at all. I work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances. My experience with fame has been the opposite: "How can I stop this from changing me?" I mean I'm not broke anymore—that's good! But today I'm more comfortable with being who I am. When I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful. But it's the intention of the work that's changed. I have fans now. I have a new purpose: to remind them that I am one of them, that we are one another. My consciousness has changed.
HB: What was the first big musical moment in your life?
LG: I went to see Phantom of the Opera with my grandma and my mom when I was very little. The stage, the voice, the music?…Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been a massive inspiration to me for some time—the storytelling, that deliciously somber undertone in his music. I just knew that he could see it while he was creating it. It is the same way I experience music.
"The three most expensive items I've ever purchased, including an actual house: my sable, a strand of diamonds, and my Mikimoto pearls."
HB: What's your favorite outfit of all time?
LG: Audrey Hepburn at the derby in My Fair Lady—the giant white hat with flower detail and bonnet, a mermaid lace gown with a giant bow, and a walking stick. I've loved that since I was little. I'll design something like that one day.
HB: Do you keep a lot of clothes that you've worn over the years?
LG: The fashion I've acquired over the years is so sacred to me—from costumes to couture, high fashion to punk wear I've collected from my secret international hot spots. I keep everything in an enormous archive in Hollywood. The clothes are on mannequins, also on hangers and in boxes with a photo of each piece, and there's a Web site where I can go to look through everything. It's too big—I could never sort through it myself! But these garments tell the stories of my life. And then there are the tour pieces. This is the section that is most sacred to me. These are the pieces that have collected energy, joy, and screams from fans all over the world. My fashion is my most prized possession for two reasons: 1) because it is a visualization of all the hard work I've put in to get where I am today; 2) because it is a legend to the encyclopedia of my life. It is exactly what I've aimed to seep into the artistic consciousness of people all over the world—that life is an art form.
HB: What is your home like?
LG: My "home" is a controversial topic. I don't exactly have one. I live all over the world. I keep a small rental in New York, where I hang many of my hats when I come to see my parents and New York pals. It's like a tiny jewel box, covered in rose-gold mirrors, with an oversize pink couch, an expensive vase, a white Marilyn piano, and a boudoir. I do not keep a lot of clothes here—mostly punk wear. And the three most expensive items I've ever purchased, including an actual house: my sable, a strand of diamonds, and my Mikimoto pearls.
Read the entire story over at http://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/news/lady-gaga-interview-0314
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