Exclusive: Lady Gaga On The Go-Go

by Lisa Mason Lee
January 2, 2012

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PinExt Exclusive: Lady Gaga On The Go Go

From Go-Go dancing, to jumping out of cakes for birthday parties, and then suddenly becoming a world-wide phenomenon, it’s no wonder that Lady Gaga has some sort of magical power.

Image via Wikipedia

It wasn’t that long ago, that Lady Gaga was just another face trying to get noticed. Before Gaga became famous, she was involved in various projects which displayed her talent, like performing as the lead vocalist and playing the piano in her own band called the “Stefani Germanotta Band” (her real name).

She wrangled a few guys together to play in the band for her, which really spotlighted Gaga mostly.

Before Gaga gained fame, she was just an ordinary looking brunette girl on the outside. But she always had that passionate talent exuding inside of her, even though she was not yet transformed on the outside yet. When she would play the piano or sing a song, you could always feel a sense of passion, love and drive. Those feelings are still apparent in her music today.

Gaga obviously broke out of her old mold, of looking average, living average, and blossomed into a blonde, lean and beautiful flower. But what was it, that thrust her into her dream coming true?

It all seems too easy, a few intimate concerts, and then whamo- she’s famous? I did some research on her, and found out that there is more than meets the eye. Gaga performed other gigs, that may have been essential components, in her magic potion concoction, that helped her reach fame at such a young age.

Gaga did not rely ‘only’ on her intimate concerts to express herself, she was involved in other performance art like go-go dancing at clubs.

According to Wikipedia, Gaga go-go danced back in 2007 and 2008, at NYC’s Beauty Bar, which was just before she became a big star. So I called Beauty Bar to ask them if this was true about Gaga.

I ended up getting ahold of Mike Stewart, the manager of Beauty Bar. I was so happy Mike talked to me, because he recalls Gaga’s go-go dancing days all so very well. It was so fun to talk to him, and find out what she was doing just before she became a household name.

I asked Mike, who happens to be closer to Gaga than I expected, to recall 2007, when Lady Gaga, a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta, supposedly go-go danced at Beauty Bar.

“I had a birthday party at Beauty Bar, back in 2007, and Lady Gaga was hired as a performer,” said Mike. “She wasn’t a full time employee at BB, but she did go-go dance on occasion, with one of our former DJs, Brendan Sullivan, who is DJ VH1.”

So I then looked up Brendan Sullivan, and he used to bring Lady Gaga and Lady Starlight, along with him to his gigs, and the girls would go-go dance alongside him. Gaga even sang on some of his tracks, which he played whilst DJing various gigs. Lady Starlight is hard rock DJ, who go-go danced as well at the time.

So then I said to Mike, “Let’s go back to your birthday party in 2007, where Gaga was hired to perform. Was she going by ‘Lady Gaga’ then by the way?” Mike responded, “She was actually [going by Lady Gaga]… my birthday party… it was held in the back room of Beauty Bar, and the guys put together a slew of people to show up- all the performers from that night are listed on this flyer.”

The flyer from the party reads “Mike Stewart & Eddie Cid’s birthday party July 25th” a bunch of DJs are on the bill, and then, at the very bottom of the flyer reads: “Lady Gaga on the go-go and other surprises!”

“And other surprises!? Mike, I have to hear about this!” Mike began again, “She made a cake to jump out of, and sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to me, and then danced for awhile.” I responded, “Wow! Those are great talents to have, and what a ‘surprise’ for your party.” Did he really just say that Gaga jumped out of a cake for his birthday! Lucky!

I had to ask him more about what Gaga was like, being on the verge of success and all.

“When you used to hang out with her, did you have any speculation that she was going to be so famous?” Mike told me that he did in fact sense her success. “I’m not surprised that Gaga made it. I think she always had a passion for her take on the music business, and it just happened to be an angle that the public appreciated as well. I don’t think she was necessarily trying to become famous, I think she was just trying to become Lady Gaga, and it worked,” he said.

When Mike told me that ‘Gaga was just trying to become Gaga’, it made me think about interviews I have seen of Gaga herself, talking about how a lot of people rejected her before she was famous. Mike was not one of those people.

“So Mike, you being one of the people who said ‘yes’ to her, as you know she talks about ‘rejection’ quite often in interviews, I know you have some sweet words you’d like to leave for Gaga.” Mike wonderfully said, “I respect the effort she puts into what she does, and I respect that she writes as well as performs. She wasn’t created by a label or manager, but she actually created herself. If I were to communicate anything to her, it would be a sincere congratulations for achieving what she has on her own terms.”

There you have it. Gaga’s magic potion was brewed from her own special ingredients. A lot of drive, good singing, piano skills, a good stage name, character and love for music and performance. She never gave up on making it, and people like Mike Stewart, who gave her a chance, let Gaga be in a position to shoot for the stars, all with the power of just saying “yes”.