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| - Stefani Germanotta (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), who performs under the stage name Lady Gaga, was born on March 28, 1986 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, New York, the eldest child of Joseph and Cynthia (née Bissett) Germanotta. She is mostly of Italian heritage with some French ancestry on her mother's side. She has a younger sister of six years, Natali. Around the age of four, Stefani started to learn piano by ear and after a while, wrote her first song called "Dollar Bills".
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| - Stefani Germanotta (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), who performs under the stage name Lady Gaga, was born on March 28, 1986 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, New York, the eldest child of Joseph and Cynthia (née Bissett) Germanotta. She is mostly of Italian heritage with some French ancestry on her mother's side. She has a younger sister of six years, Natali. Around the age of four, Stefani started to learn piano by ear and after a while, wrote her first song called "Dollar Bills". "I still remember the first song I heard. My dad was listening to what I now know was Pink Floyd’s “Money,” and understanding only the sounds of the cash register in the intro, I wrote a song called “Dollar Bills” on my Mickey Mouse staff paper." She received a classical training later to complete her knowledge of the piano. By the time she was eleven she was set to join Julliard School in Manhattan, though she decided it wasn't for her. Instead she went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Roman Catholic school. She was, she says, "focused, determined. I was always in a band, or in a musical. I didn't really fit in but I had friends because I'm a nice girl and fun to party with." Gaga described herself in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak." Because she was aware of her parents' sacrifices for her education, Stefani took school seriously from a young age. One of her favorite childhood memories is playing a piano concert at Sacred Heart at 8. “There was a line of twenty girls sitting in a row in our pretty dresses, and we each got up to play,” she says happily. “I did a really good job. I was quite good.” At 11, she began attending a full day of acting classes on Saturdays. “I remember the first time that I drank out of an imaginary coffee cup,” she says” she says, closing her eyes. “That’s the very first thing they teach you. I can feel the rain, too, when it’s not raining.” (From New York Mag) She sang in a classic-rock cover band (Mackin Pulsifer?) during her freshman year of high school. The band did covers of Led Zeppelin's songs along with Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane. At thirteen, she wrote her first piano ballad "To Love Again". At fourteen, Stefani started to work with voice teacher Don Lawrence. She recalls the person who suggested her to meet him : "I was singing [I Want It That Way] to myself in a shop down the street from my house, when the store owner, who happened to also be a musician, pulled me aside and slipped a phone number in my hand. He told me his uncle was a highly respected voice teacher who he thought would like to work with me. I called him up and remember his words, “I work with Grammy Award Winner Christina Aguilera, Bono of U2, Mick Jagger and as the list got larger I got more excited. " —Lady Gaga Around the same time, Stefani began performing in open mic nights. She was too young that her mother had to go with her -- knowing that Stefani would sneak out anyway. "These were jazz bars, not sex clubs," she explains. "They would have open mic nights so my mother would take me along and say, 'My daughter's very young but she's very talented. I'll sit with her as she plays.' " “She’d say to the manager, ‘Listen, I know she’s too young to be in here, and I’m too old to be in here, but she’s incredibly talented and she’s a singer-songwriter and can she sign up on your open-mic list?’ And we just sat and waited round for them to call my name.” —Lady Gaga Her parents were both very supportive of her passion for music. Stefani learned for some years with Lawrence and started writing music as an outlet and less of a hobby.
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