Lady Gaga performs during the Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show at NRG Stadium on February 5, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Since hitting the scene, Lady Gaga has become one of the most famous faces in pop music history.

The New York City native released her debut single, “Just Dance,” in April 2008. As she continued to drop one chart-topping hit after another, from “Bad Romance” to “Born This Way” to “Million Reasons,” she quickly became a household name across the world, thanks in part to her innovative, avant-garde costumes.

Gaga (real name Stefani Germanotta) has since released five albums, in addition to the soundtrack for A Star Is Born, in which she starred alongside Bradley Cooper. “Shallow,” a duet from the film, earned the nine-time Grammy winner an Oscar, bringing her halfway to EGOT status just over a decade into her career.

“I’ve worked hard for a long time, and it’s not about … winning. What it’s about is not giving up,” she declared while accepting her Academy Award in February 2019. “If you have a dream, fight for it. There’s a discipline for passion. And it’s not about how many times you get rejected or you fall down or you’re beaten up. It’s about how many times you stand up and are brave and you keep on going.”

When Gaga is not busy performing or acting, she uses her platform to be a vocal champion for mental health, LGBT rights, body positivity and female empowerment. The “Rain on Me” singer has spoken candidly about her own struggles, discussing the battle between her onstage persona and her everyday self.

“My biggest enemy is Lady Gaga, that’s what I was thinking. My biggest enemy is her,” she said on CBS This Morning in September 2020, detailing a particularly dark period of her career. “You can’t go to the grocery store now. If you go to dinner with your family [and] somebody comes to the table, you can’t have dinner with your family without it being about you, it’s always about you. All the time it’s about you. … I hated being famous, I hated being a star, I felt exhausted and used up.”

However, things started to change following the release of her sixth album, Chromatica, in May 2020. “I don’t hate Lady Gaga anymore,” she told CBS. “Now I look at this piano and I go, ‘Ugh, my God, my piano, my piano that I love so much. My piano, that lets me speak, my piano that lets me make poetry. My piano that’s mine.’”

The ever-evolving entertainer has credited her success to her hardworking family. Dad Joe Germanotta owns Joanne Trattoria, a homestyle Italian restaurant on NYC’s Upper West Side; mom Cynthia Germanotta cofounded the Born This Way Foundation with Gaga; and sister Natali Germanotta has designed many of the performer’s outfits. Gaga has also said that she is inspired by her late aunt Joanne Germanotta, who died in 1974 from lupus at the age of 19.

Scroll down to see photos of Gaga through the years!

Credit: Daniel Boczarski/Redferns

August 2007

A year before her breakthrough, Gaga performed a four-song set with Lady Starlight, her close friend from New York, at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

Credit: Interscope

August 2008

Gaga released her debut album, The Fame, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was one of the bestselling records of the year. It included the electropop singles “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say),” “LoveGame” and “Paparazzi.”

Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

September 2009

Gaga delivered a jaw-dropping performance of “Paparazzi” at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards that ended with her staggering across the stage with fake blood dripping from her rib cage. She took home three awards, including Best New Artist.

Credit: Interscope

November 2009

Gaga dropped an eight-song EP titled The Fame Monster that featured darker themes than her debut. The singles included “Bad Romance,” “Telephone” and “Alejandro.”

Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

January 2010

Gaga took home her first two Grammys: Best Dance Recording for “Poker Face” and Best Electronic/Dance Album for The Fame. The disc was also nominated for Album of the Year, but lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless. Gaga and Elton John opened the show with a medley of their songs, facing each other as they played a double piano.