Profiles

The Making of Gaga

An old friend recounts her rise.

It’s not easy keeping such a high profile: Lady Gaga employs a creative team of more than 100 people and “spends hours on many days constructing and fine-tuning what designers call mood boards — collages of artwork, fashion inspirations, and drawings meant to direct the stylists and artists (wardrobe, hair, and makeup) who execute her vision of Lady Gaga,” according to Brendan Sullivan, a friend who used to DJ for her before she took off. While she was filming the video for “Just Dance,” she told Sulilvan, "When I get back to New York, I want to sit down and get dinner with you and just be normal people. Not you being my DJ and me being your singer. I just want to be Brendan and Stefani.” He writes, “The dinner never happened, because Stefani has not had a day off from being Lady Gaga since.”