Interview: Lady Gaga opens up about overcoming PTSD, stanning Bruce Springsteen and making peace with her persona on Chromatica, featuring K-pop’s Blackpink

Mar 5 , 2021

Lady Gaga at the 91st Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California in 2019. Photo: Invision/AP

‘I don’t hate Lady Gaga anymore’: the pop icon has long struggled with mental issues since a traumatic assault aged 19 – but is now finding peace with her piano

Gaga’s performance of the US national anthem at Joe Biden’s inauguration went viral, a career high to match her Oscar for A Star is Born with Bradley Cooper

Lady Gaga is closer than ever to achieving the kind of psychological and spiritual peace that she has long been seeking. Over the course of her spectacular career as musician and actor, she has been remarkably open in discussing her struggles with mental health, and how she has dealt with being the victim of bullying in high school and sexual assault by a music producer.

Many of her songs echo her innermost feelings about the traumatic events that have both shaped her life and inspired her to become one of greatest musical artists of her time. This has helped Gaga, who turns 35 on March 28, to command the public consciousness, and she is now firmly established as an iconic performer revered for her ability to summon deep emotion in her lyrics.

I know that I have mental issues; I know that they can be sometimes rendering me non-functional as a human. But I radically accept that this is real

Lady Gaga

Last year, the release of her album “Chromatica” – the sixth consecutive No 1 selling album of her career – was not only an important moment in her artistic evolution, but also a significant step forward in her lifelong struggle to heal her mind and spirit. The album takes Gaga and her fans back to her dance-pop roots, but in this case the celebratory message is amplified in songs that testify to her acknowledgement and understanding of the mental health issues that remain an urgent theme of her reflections.

“The beginning of the album really symbolises, for me, what I would call the beginning of my journey to healing, and what I would hope would be an inspiration for people that are in need of healing through happiness, through dance,” Gaga said. “For example, I know that I have mental issues; I know that they can be sometimes rendering me non-functional as a human. But I radically accept that this is real.”

Lady Gaga made a mark at The Met Gala in New York on May 6, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Ahead of the release, she also dropped an unexpected track, Sour Candy, a collaboration with K-pop band Blackpink.

Despite her status as a global superstar, Lady Gaga – who grew up in New York as Stefania Germanotta – has never quite managed to allow herself the comfort of being able to celebrate her achievements. Instead, she has lived under the weight of psychological trauma that hasn’t let her entirely escape its grip. However, she believes that she and others who suffer similar kinds of anguish can take some solace in the powerful subtext in “Chromatica”.