Pride Month 2020: Lady Gaga's journey from 'The Fame' to 'Chromatica' and why she proudly wears her scars
At the young age of 34, Stephanie Germanotta aka Lady Gaga has been through quite a lot in life already and gathered her fair share of bumps, bruises and mental scars over the years. But through it all, the singer has fought valiantly and proudly forged ahead, be it combating the evil machinations of a system that thrives on negativity and sensationalism, or transcending her own personal demons and vices.
Her latest album, 'Chromatica', which released on May 29, is a triumphant return to her dance-pop origins, but in many ways, it also deals with many personal issues that the singer is now unabashedly candid about. And why shouldn't she be — the empathetic artiste wears her heart on her sleeve, and constantly gives support and encouragement to the fans and people who need it the most — the underdogs, the overly-ridiculed pariahs, the oppressed minorities, the repressed identities, the beaten and the damned.
As seen in her fantastical music video for the title track, Chromatica actually represents a planet where equality is a watchword and positivity an ideal to be strived for by kindness punks everywhere. Lady Gaga elaborated on the term, saying it referred not just to the chromatic scale of music, but of varying colors and hues on the visual spectrum. "It's all the colors, all the sounds, you know, so we, we're talking about inclusivity and life... It's inclusivity but it's really a way of thinking, you know, it's not just, 'Oh, Chromatica, we're being inclusive with all the colors, all the people,' and when I say, 'All the colors, all the people' I mean way more than we could possibly fathom."
As the month of June ushers in LGBT Pride Month, it's worth noting that Lady Gaga has been a champion for LGBTQIA+ culture. She's been waving the rainbow flag for decades now and has gone out of her way to make everyone feel included, from racial minorities to misunderstood people on the gender spectrum struggling to understand their identity. And it all comes from a place of pain, abuse and suffering that the singer herself has had to endure.
As Gaga told Zane Lowe in a recent interview before the 'Chromatica' album dropped, "I think that the beginning of the album really symbolizes, for me, what I would call the beginning of my journey to healing, and what I would hope would be an inspiration for people that are in need of healing through happiness, through dance." And lord knows Gaga has been through some dark times to get to that healing stage.
In the dark and revealing 'Chromatica' song '911', the singer admits that she is her own worst enemy. She became overly dependent on medication over time, hellbent on numbing herself from all the pain she's suffered. The singer suffers from self-harming tendencies, alcohol dependency, depression and mental health issues, fibromyalgia, and PTSD, the aftermath of being raped at age 19.
This is further confirmed on 'Rain On Me', her collaboration with Ariana Grande, where Lady Gaga explores her personal trauma and misery but also proudly declares, "Gotta live my truth, not keep it bottled in / So I don't lose my mind." On another song, 'Sine From Above' a collaboration with her idol and mentor, Elton John, she revels in the healing power of music.
Elton John wasn't the only gay music icon who inspired Lady Gaga to be herself. She's tipped her hat to Madonna with her brazenness and vamping, Annie Lennox with her theatricality and androgyny, Marilyn Manson with her dark themes and shock value and David Bowie with her cross-dressing and queerness. Her 2011 song 'Born This Way' aped Madonna's 'Express Yourself' and echoed those themes of self-empowerment, identity and freedom of expression and identity. It was promptly adopted as an anthem by the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as immigrants and racial minorities.
Lady Gaga's very first No. 1 hit 'Pokerface', the song that launched her career and her debut album 'The Fame' in 2008, actually deals with the singer's personal experiences with bisexuality. She has always been leading the way for people to feel safe, brave, and comfortable enough to be themselves, no matter what struggles they might have endured, or identity politics they still might be facing.
Gaga is also a vocal advocate for survivors of sexual assault, be it batting for Kesha or Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. All because she knows what it feels like to be raped, and the pain and trauma that comes in its wake. She wrote the Oscar-nominated song 'Til It Happens to You' for and because of 'The Hunting Ground', the 2015 documentary that deals with sexual assault in colleges.
She even invited a group of sexual assault survivors onstage with her when she performed the song at the 2016 Oscars. The powerful lyrics tell their own tale: "You tell me it gets better, it gets better in time/You say I'll pull myself together, pull it together, you'll be fine/Tell me, what the hell do you know? What do you know?" And look no further than her 2013 song 'Swine', which details the rage and demoralization the young Stephanie Germanotta felt after being sexually assaulted as a teenager.
She admitted that her body was never to fully process the ordeal: "I all of a sudden became a star and was traveling the world going from hotel room to garage to limo to stage, and I never dealt with it, and then all of a sudden I started to experience this incredible intense pain throughout my entire body that mimicked the illness I felt after I was raped."
As the superstar told Oprah Winfrey after winning her Oscar for 'A Star Is Born: "I have been traumatized in a variety of ways by my career over the years from many different things, but I survived, and I’ve kept going. And when I looked at that Oscar, I saw pain." She then continued, "But you know what, Oprah? I kept going, and that kid out there or even that adult out there who’s been through so much, I want them to know that they can keep going, and they can survive, and they can win their Oscar. I would also beckon to anyone to try, when they feel ready, to ask for help. And I would beckon to others that if they see someone suffering, to approach them and say, 'Hey, I see you. I see that you're suffering, and I'm here. Tell me your story'."
And as she declared in another interview with Howard Stern: "I'm going to take responsibility for all of my pain, looking beautiful, and all the things that I’ve made out of my strife." She also admitted, "All this drinking and all this nonsense, you have to go to the source, otherwise it just won’t go away." The vocalist has sought mental, emotional, and physical therapy to cope with the trauma of her past experiences.
But she's a fighter. She's also a survivor, and she wants you to know that you can do it too, regardless of how defeated you might feel. As she admitted to Zane Lowe about what she hoped fans would take away from 'Chromatica', she remarked, "I hope that they listen to this record, and go on not only my personal journey with me, and dance through all the pain, but also go through their own journey, and dance through all their pain."