Lady Gaga may be an internationally famous pop singer and actress, an Oscar winner and Vogue cover star, but she knows more about scrappy beginnings than anyone. Born and raised in New York City, the 38-year-old star has been performing on both stage and screen since she was a teenager. Not all of her early roles and musical gigs were necessarily glamorous, but now that she’s conquered both Hollywood and the music industry, they’re a delight to revisit.
Below, find our roundup of Lady Gaga’s best early and pre-Gaga-moniker performances:
Year unknown: Featured role in an anti-sexual harassment video
Gaga has spoken out against sexism, misogyny, and rape culture throughout her career, but this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the kind of anti-harassment video that is often used to teach high school students about consent proves her values truly go way back. (To spot a young Gaga fending off the unwelcome advances of a creepy guy, head to 0:40.)
2001: Background role on a Season 3 episode of The Sopranos
Before Lady Gaga was selling out stadiums, Stefani Germanotta was racking up her very first IMDb credit as “Girl at Swimming Pool #2.” While the woman herself may not be a fan of her performance—“When I look back on that scene I can see exactly what I did wrong,” Gaga told Entertainment Weekly of rewatching her guest spot in 2021—we can’t help loving it anyway.
2005: Live performance of “No Floods” at the Columbus Day Parade
The long, dark, seemingly natural hair! The chill makeup! The owl pendant! Has anything ever screamed “2005” more loudly?
2007: Appearance on MTV’s Boiling Points
In case you weren’t in middle school during the second Bush administration, let me refresh you: MTV’s Boiling Points was a show that put celebrities in hyper-stressful situations to see how long they would last. In a Season 3 episode, Gaga—then still two years away from releasing her debut studio album—ultimately lost her cool at the thought of eating a trash-covered meal at a New York City restaurant, which, I must say, is kind of fair.
2006: Live musical performance with the Stefani Germanotta Band at the Bitter End in New York City
The artist now know as Lady Gaga’s delivery of the words “Hey, guys…WHAT’S UP?” in this video will likely remain with me until the end of my days. Back in the early aughts, she was known for performing regularly at downtown New York City fixtures including the Bitter End and the Cutting Room, and if you went to NYU at any point around 2006, you probably saw her perform without knowing it. (I, of course, am seething with jealousy.)
