Lady Gaga’s smash hit “Bad Romance” contains lines in French, and she delivered an emotional rendition of “La Vie en rose” in A Star is Born. What does this say about her ancestry and is she secretly French?
Lady Gaga is not a French citizen but has distant French-Canadian roots. The Grammy-winning singer was born in New York to parents of Italian ancestry and is legally a US citizen.
Lady Gaga’s Roots
Lady Gaga was born as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, and her birth name makes it pretty obvious that she has an interesting ethnic background. Her parents Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta are both Italian Americans, but there’s more to them than meets the eye.
Lady Gaga also has French-Canadian ancestry through her mother. It’s unclear if the singer ever tried to reconnect with this part of her heritage, but she’s certainly proud of her Italian roots.
She referenced her Italian heritage so often that people started making jokes about it, but that didn’t seem to affect her. She enjoys describing herself as “an Italian girl from New York” every chance she gets but doesn’t speak Italian fluently.
Gaga’s A Star is Born co-star Bradley Cooper also happens to be of Italian ancestry, and they apparently bonded over their Italian roots while making this film. Cooper said they had “real synchronicity” because they both come from East Coast Italian American families.
Singing in French
Lady Gaga is no stranger to including foreign words in her songs to appeal to her global fanbase. “Born This Way” is one of the most notable examples, and it left people wondering if she’s fluent in French.
This song featured a line “Je veux ton amour et je veux ta revanche”, a French translation of “I want your love and I want your revenge”. “Bloody Mary” also included a line in French “J’veux pas mourir tout seule”, roughly translated as “I don’t want to die alone”.
Lady Gaga also demonstrated her French abilities in A Star is Born, when she broke our hearts with a powerful rendition of Édith Piaf’s “La Vie en rose”. She’s obviously a huge fan of this song, and even got a beautiful back tattoo that references this tune.
The “Poker Face” singer actually had a chance to perform this song long before being cast in A Star is Born. She took a part in TV special Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 in 2016, and “La Vie en rose” was one of the songs she picked for the occasion.
Lady Gaga also demonstrated her ability to speak French in her interviews and performances, but there’s little evidence of her fluency in this language. Her French may not be perfect, but she speaks it with confidence, and that’s quite enough for her fans.
Madonna’s Distant Cousin?
Celebrity genealogist Chris Child found Lady Gaga’s French-Canadian ancestry pretty interesting and decided to look into it. He found evidence that she might be related to another pop superstar – Madonna!
He traced both singers back to a farming couple who came from France to Quebec in the 1600s. According to Child, the documents he came across prove that Lady Gaga and Madonna are ninth cousins once removed.
Even if you think that Child’s evidence doesn’t hold any water, the two singers obviously go a way back. Lady Gaga has been compared to Madonna since the start of her career and accused of ripping her off more than once.
The “Stupid Love” singer fired back at the critics during an interview with Zane Lowe in 2016. She dismissed the comparison by saying that she’s very different than Madonna because she writes her own music and plays a lot of instruments.
It seems that they finally put their feud to rest at Madonna’s Oscars after-party in 2019. They took a photo together shortly after Lady Gaga won the Academy Award for Best Original Song with “Shallow”, and it seemed like they’re having a great time.
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A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Feb 25, 2019 at 3:12pm PST
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