Lady Gaga fans swoon over unearthed footage of her before she was famous

Lady Gaga shot to fame in 2008 with the release of “Just Dance” and her debut album, The Fame. 

However, she’d been plugging away at her craft in the years leading up to this. 

Yesterday, footage hit the internet of Gaga performing at Lollapalooza in 2007. She performed on one of the festival’s smaller stages with the DJ Lady Starlight.

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The two women became friends after meeting at a party in Manhattan. They used to collaborate on events and did a short-lived run on shows called the Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue, with Starlight spinning glam and metal songs between Gaga’s performances of her own tracks. 

One particular clip shows Gaga performing “Paparazzi” to the small crowd. The audience members are wholly unaware they’re hearing a future classic before anyone else. 

Footage has been unearthed of Lady Gaga performing “Paparazzi” in 2007 at Lollapalooza. https://t.co/IcIJQXUVqB— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 9, 2024

A longer, 20-minute clip of the show is also online and has been uploaded to YouTube.

One fan helpfully details the tracks performed. They are: “My name is Lady Gaga”;  “Blueberry Kisses”; “Dirty Ice Cream”; “Disco Heaven”; “Brown Eyes”; “Summerboy”; “Lady Starlight”; “Paparazzi”; and “Boys Boys Boys”.

A previously unseen recording of Lady Gaga and Lady Starlight's full set at Lollapalooza (2007) pic.twitter.com/DVwLvHsZoi— Ryan | Lady Gaga (@ryanleejohnson) October 9, 2024

“A missing piece of Mozart”

Gaga fans, affectionately known as Little Monsters, were blown away by the footage. 

“This is like finding a missing piece of Mozart,” said one on YouTube. 

“It’s surreal to see ‘Paparazzi’ sung by 2007 brunette Ga before the creation of the blonde popstar everyone knew her as,” said another. 

Where did this all come from? This is incredible to have all the full performances— mikey (@magicmikeyskitc) October 9, 2024

Even in 2007 she was a 10/10 performer wow— imani 3.0 (@positionsmafiaa) October 9, 2024

Imagine hearing Paparazzi for the first time, before anyone else know of its existence, and not knowing it will be one of the Summer hit couple of years or so later (July 2009). Such a treat, honestly!— connor tomblood (@kungpaodickens) October 9, 2024

He knew. pic.twitter.com/uZWVX5izQi— (@gan_mannn) October 9, 2024

this is sooo not the point but i forgot what concerts were like when everyone was literally just watching and not on their phones lmfao— Samuel Adams (@Samazoid) October 9, 2024

Gaga has since gone on to Grammy and Oscar-winning glory. She’s currently at number one at the box office in Joker 2: Folie à Deux (even if it’s left audiences extremely divided), and her collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Die With A Smile” is still in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. She’s also gearing up for the release of her seventh studio album, with its first single due later this month.

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