Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Germanotta. Young Stefani first learned to play piano by ear at the age of four (so she claims) and wrote her first piano ballad at the age of 13.

Gaga's Italian/American father, Joe Germanotta, started a company called Guest WiFi in 2002, which installed wireless internet access in hotels. Germanotta was quite a pioneer as 2002 was the dark ages of hotel WiFi. He eventually got out of the WiFi game to runs his daughter's publishing company, House of Gaga Publishing. Gaga later wrote the song "Speechless, in which she hoped he would be convinced to seek the medical treatment for his longstanding heart condition.

She attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, the same private Manhattan Catholic school that Nicky and Paris Hilton attended. Gaga went on to study music at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts at the age 17 but dropped out to pursue her music career.