BORN THIS WAY 02.11.11: diciembre 2009

TheNational.ae / Like a 21st-century butterfly, Lady Gaga flittered hither and thither this year, lighting up the world with her outlandish dress sense. There is no single moment to celebrate in particular, just a string of them to cherish. She first stamped herself upon public consciousness in February, when Just Dance, her debut single, started gaining serious airplay. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to maintain her status as pop oddity of the year. She dressed as a teacup for the Brit Awards, barely covered herself in a bubble-wrap dress for a performance in San Diego, plastered herself in fake blood at the MTV Awards in September and has never knowingly been photographed wearing a pair of trousers. Gaga by name, gaga by nature. And we salute her for

MTV.com | With her far-out costumes and jaw-dropping performances, Lady Gaga probably strikes many people as nothing more than a character. But the singer, currently out on her Monster Ball Tour, tells MTV News that her vision for the tour goes far beyond being eye candy and revolves entirely around her fans. She says she ultimately wants nothing less than to change the lives of her audience. “No, it’s not a character, but what it is … it’s a devotion and a loyalty to the music, and preparing myself for the moment so that I may fully be free and fully give myself to the audience,” Gaga told MTV News. “There’s so many things that we have to do,” she continued, explaining her pre-show mindset. “We have to free our insecurities so that we can be strong and powerful; we have to be centered. Our throats have to be cleared so we can speak eloquently. My voice must be warmed up; my mind has to be rested and focused so that I don’t fall off the stage, or I don’t lean the wrong way.” Whether onstage or off, the singer hopes to continue to create a connection that’ll make fans “feel alive.” “What I do is, in essence, create an atmosphere for my fans where they don’t leave loving me, they leave loving themselves,” the singer explained. The theme of Gaga’s Fame Monster is a big part of helping her create that performer/ audience relationship. “When I say things like, ‘Do you love me? Do you want to f— me? Come on, Hollywood, take my picture,’ it’s the ultimate epitome of what that fame monster is,” she said. “And somehow, if you make fun of it or you make it a bit more tangible, fame is something that my fans can have for themselves. It’s not quite so poisonous.” Gaga noted that her onstage progression provides the narrative to the tour, which hit San Diego earlier this week. “I’m evolving through time. As a fashion story, the clothing begins in the sort of warbly, blue amoebic state, with lots of light, and it’s kind of spacey, and then I grow bones, and then I grow hair, and then I grow horns, and then I become a sexy, full-bodied woman in a world full of war and military,” she described. “And then I become myself, by the end of the show, and it’s this sort of apocalyptic rebirth when I appear in the orbit and I’ve done it again.” The Monster Ball Tour is currently being revamped, and the new show will hit the U.K. in February.