Who doesn’t know Lady Gaga? Just recently, the Japanese government asked for her help in boosting their tourism industry after it had fallen 73% in March as compared to March 2010 after the devastations caused by the March 11th earthquake followed by a disastrous tsunami which caused the ongoing threat of harmful effect from the radiation of damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants. With her “fame” there is no doubt that Japan’s tourism would be right back on track in no time.
Aside from being an ambassador, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986) better known as Lady Gaga is also a philanthropist, she uses her name and fame to further charitable foundations. Even before she became a tourism ambassador for Japan she have already extended a helping hand for the victims in Japan from the sales of the prayer bracelets that she designed collecting up to $1.5m and just last year she raised up to $500,000 for victims of the earthquake in Haiti from the profits of a special concert in New York. Gaga also teamed up with a company of which proceeds went to its HIV/Aids campaign.
Since her debut back in 2008, she sure had gone so far. In three years’ time she was able to achieve what others could only dream of. Lady Gaga’s peculiar fashion sense, creative music videos and unique personality paved the way for her extraordinary ‘Fame’.
With her debut studio album The Fame, which included the hits “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” and “Bad Romance,” she sold over 15 million copies worldwide with six Grammy nominations, two wins and other awards recognition, which included a record breaking thirteen MTV Video Music Award nominations. Gaga is the first artist musician in history to ever have four #1 hits from a debut album, namely; “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “Love Game” and “Paparazzi.”
She is also the only artist in this digital era to top the 5 million sales mark with her first two hits. Gaga broke the record when her single “Poker Face” reached 5 million in sales after her debut single “Just Dance” accomplished the same achievement the year before. She has over 1.3 billion combined views of all her videos online. She is also leading in the social networking world. She’s one of the most liked personalities on Facebook with over 39 million ‘likes’ and with over 11 million followers on Twitter she is with no doubt #1.
Her third studio album, Born This Way, was released in May 23, 2011. The first single from the album, title track “Born This Way”, set a music industry record by being the fastest single in history to reach sales of 1,000,000 copies just five days after it was released. Only the 19th single to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the recording was Lady Gaga’s third #1 on the chart. On iTunes, the song debuted at the top spot in 14 countries, including the U.S., and hit #1 in all 23 iTunes stores worldwide its first week out. “Born This Way” was Gaga’s 7th single to hit #1 at Top 40. Although “Judas” her second single from the album, sold only 500,000, her latest single, “The Edge of Glory,” went straight to #1 on iTunes from the day it was released and stayed on that spot for 3 days.
Her influences to the music industry have gained her a lot of accomplishments including five Grammy Awards among twelve nominations, two Guinness World Records and the estimated sale of 15 million albums and 51 million singles worldwide. She was named both the “2010 Artist of the Year” and the top selling artist of 2010 by Billboard giving her the 73rd rank as Artist of the 2000s decade.
Gaga was included in Time’s annual “The 2010 Time 100” list of the most influential people in the world and Forbes’ list of the “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities” in the world. She was also placed at the 7th spot on Forbes annual list of the world’s “100 Most Powerful Women.”
Came with the fame was fortune, with all those achievements money would literally just be pouring into her palms, but exactly how rich is Lady Gaga?
According to Forbes magazine, last year she earned a total of $62 million; however the publication sets her earnings potential at an astounding $100 million plus for this year.
Although she’s currently just renting an apartment in California rumors has it that she is fascinated in owning a castle in the UK or buying a home some popular locations, such as the millionaire’s playground Martha’s Vineyard on the east coast of US, being the Queen of the pop scene Lady Gaga most definitely can afford any or both.
Photo credits to Fabio Contini (Flicker Creative Commons image – Attribution required).
Lyza is a correspondent for a local newspaper, full time news writer for a local radio station and a part time web writer. Her ultimate dream is to become a novelist but for now she’s joggling all those three jobs to further enhance her writing skills. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication and is incorporating all she has learned at school and through her personal experiences in her work.
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