Lady Gaga finally responds to those ex-classmates who told her she’d “never be famous”
"This is why you can't give up when people doubt you or put you down—gotta keep going."
Lady Gaga appears to have acknowledged that some former classmates created a small, private Facebook group entitled “Stefani Germanotta, you will never be famous.”
The page is thought to date back to Gaga’s time at New York University in the mid ’00s. Images of the Facebook group’s page have circulated on social media for years. However, Gaga has never acknowledged them… until this week.
A Gaga fan posted a TikTok consisting of two images. One was of the old Facebook group page. It’s a closed group with only a dozen members. The other was an image of Gaga with a list of many of the top honors she has received, including her Oscar and Grammy wins.
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Surprisingly, among those to comment was Gaga herself. She wrote: “Some people I went to college [with] made this way back when. This is why you can’t give up when people doubt you or put you down—gotta keep going.”
Gaga’s comment received over 100K likes, while the original TikTok has received 189K likes.
Gaga’s early life
Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in Manhattan in 1986. She began learning piano at age 4. By the time she was a teenager, she was writing her own songs and began appearing at open mic nights.
In 2003, she gained early admission to New York University (NYU)’s Tisch School of the Arts. She dropped out in 2005 to focus on her music career.
Last year, Bachelor alum Carly Waddell, a former classmate of Lady Gaga, made headlines over comments she made on Jason Tartick’s Trading Secrets podcast.
Waddell talked about attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at the same time as Gaga.
Waddell suggested that the “Poker Face” singer’s habit of belting out Wicked tunes on the piano during lunchtime could get a little annoying.
“[We] would eat in a dance studio,” Waddell recalled. “And there was a piano, and [Gaga] would sit at the piano every single day and just play and sing Wicked at the top of her lungs every day. And we were all just trying to eat lunch. It was break time, and we were all forced to listen to her. And yes, was she good? Of course! She was great, but I just wanted to eat my sandwich. And so I used to just eat in the hallway because she was driving me crazy.”
Waddell went on to say that although she recognized Gaga as talented, she didn’t stand out at the time.
“She was one of the good ones, but I wouldn’t ever be like, ‘She was so above.’ But now she’s so above,” she said.
Talent shines through
There is no suggestion Wadell had anything to do with the old Facebook group mocking Gaga’s ambitions. It’s also not known when the Facebook group was created. Facebook launched in 2004 as ‘The Facebook’ and changed its name to simply ‘Facebook’ in 2005.
Wadell went on to say she began to appreciate Gaga’s talent when the future superstar performed at a talent show.
“When she played at the NYU talent show, she was singing her own stuff, and I was like, ‘You can’t argue, that girl is really good,’” Waddell recalled. “She was good at everything, but she was better at her own stuff. She was down at the piano, wailing her own tunes … she’s a genius.”
*NYU students trying to eat their lunch*
Lady Gaga in the corner: pic.twitter.com/4erbcD1H7O— Joey Monda (@joeymonda) November 8, 2023
The “Poker Face” singer began calling herself Lady Gaga in the mid-00s. She hit the big time with her debut album, The Fame, in 2009.
Gaga has enjoyed multiple hits since then and also made her mark on the big screen. She will be seen next month in the eagerly-anticipated Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux.
Her latest track, “Die With A Smile,” with Bruno Mars, is currently at six on the Billboard Hot 100. She says the first track from her seventh studio album will be out next month.
On TikTok, many wondered what the creator of the old Facebook page is up to these days. Another well-liked comment from a Gaga fan simply said, “She’s not famous, she’s an ICON.”
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