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Why 'A Star Is Born' marks the true arrival of Lady Gaga

It's not just a great performance; Gaga builds this character from the inside out. No, Ally is not just like Gaga. The two women may be harnessed in the same vessel, but they are different.
Warner Brothers Pictures-A Star Is Born

Before A Star Is Born riveted me to tears this month, I knew who Lady Gaga was. I was aware. Being an entertainment writer and not knowing would be considered show business treason, but I wasn't infatuated just yet. She was somebody very important to millions of others, but not to me...yet.

The 32-year-old born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has done everything a musical artist would aspire to do before she rocked our hearts out with Bradley Cooper. Five hit studio albums, trading notes with Tony Bennett, selling out arenas across the world, and rewriting the books on what a chip on your shoulder at a young age can produce if you protect your art with a shield of honor.

By January 2016, Gaga 27 million albums and 146 million singles. You would need to be on the far side of Mars to not hear "Born This Way" or "Poker Face". Along with being a one-of-a-kind performer, Gaga had pipes that matched Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and well...anybody who has ever gotten in front of a microphone with something to say. She has done it all, but if you ask me, playing Ally in A Star Is Born marks her true arrival in our lives. Not bad for the girl who made her debut in 2001 with a blink and you may miss it role on HBO's The Sopranos.

Here's the thing. At next year's Academy Awards, Gaga could very well win the Oscar for Best Song, Best Actress, and join Cooper on the stage for Best Picture. She is a triple-threat in this town now. In addition to breaking and mending our hearts on screen, Gaga co-wrote the songs that she performed on stage with Cooper in the film. It was Gaga singing La Vie En Rose at a Cancer Benefit years ago that sparked Cooper into making this film. Less than 24 hours later, he called her up, set a meeting, sang "Midnight Special" with her, and the rest could very well be history.

The first time I set my eyes on Gaga on a movie screen was Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. Granted, it was a small part as a waitress at a diner who soaks in the interest of Joseph Gordon Levitt's doomed gambler, but the flawed film left you wondering who this woman and how much more could she do. Sometimes, you need to crawl before you can walk. For audiences, sometimes a deep tease is exactly what makes the cinematic lips get wet.

What did she do next? Win a Golden Globe playing a wicked woman on FXX's American Horror Story. If you hadn't guessed by this point in the article, she doesn't take any half-steps or semi-measures when it comes to her career. She bull-rushes obstacles like no other. Born in Manhattan to parents with Italian and French-Canadian roots, this is the only way she knows how to do it.

In A Star Is Born, she is something else. A force to reckon with and admire...before falling in love with. It would have been impressive for Gaga to give a performance akin to the work that Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand produced in previous iterations of the famous story of old and weary colliding with young and ambitious. What she did instead was blow those performances away making you forget that the other films even existed.

It's not just a great performance; Gaga builds this character from the inside out. No, Ally is not just like Gaga. The two women may be harnessed in the same vessel, but they are different. Unlike the real life musician, Ally has given up on herself when we first meet her in the film. When Cooper's Jackson Maine sets eyes on her in a drag bar, he is blown away...while wondering how this incredible voice is locked in by such tight walls and a limited audience.

On ABC News with Michael Strahan, Gaga talked about never giving up hope when she was coming up in the business, warding off all naysayers in order to crack her first single. When asked where she found Ally, Gaga had to go all the way back to high school. A place where fellow classmates bullied her for singing, wanting to be a musician, being herself, and refusing to become a robotic teenager. It was there where the bones and soul of Ally were formulated.

The similarity one can find in Gaga and Ally is the rejection found in the music business. Instead of being welcomed in for a ferocious voice and talent, producers and would-be matchmakers didn't like the way she looked, hence the chip on her shoulder that eventually led to a hit single, another hit single, and countless other hits. It's my belief that in order to make it in Hollywood, in the movies or music world, you have to be arrogant. The level of arrogance I am talking about has to do with your ability and where people tell you it belongs. This is where Gaga also found the parts for Ally.

Just break down the hit song you've been humming since you left the theater, "The Shallow". In it, Ally talks about trying so hard to remain authentic in a relentlessly unapologetic world. How one must remain hardcore by refusing to give in to others while also avoiding being swallowed up by the demons in your own soul and ones the business gives off. This song connects Ally's trouble in rising with Maine's inevitable fall from grace. There's a reason it is the rousing anthem for the movie and for Gaga in a way.

It doesn't stop there. "Never Love Again" will get to you quickly. A song that most can relate to in a harsh world where fate plays give and take with your life. The video was released today by Cooper and Gaga, and it will destroy you. I'm not talking about a box of tissue and chocolate destruction; there's real power there.

If someone else was singing, the power would be lacking. The effect would be less. I won't beat around the bush: these songs will be hard to cover. When a female artist goes for it, all we will hear is NOT Lady Gaga. Some artists give off that feel.

In A Star Is Born, Gaga's singing merges perfectly with her performance in a way that has never been done before. I am sorry, Whitney fans, but she played a mere version of herself in The Bodyguard. It's not the same. The music from Ally helps you understand her plight and leaves you wanting more information. It helps when someone sings from their bones every single time.

Gaga's range is the most impressive part about this role. She has to go to so many places. The emotional and visceral feel in later scenes in the movie, when things get heavy and sad, have a big payoff due to Gaga's explosive performance throughout-and the belief she gives the audience in her character. It's not just the performing and unique beauty that Gaga gives you off in the film; she holds her own and then some with Oscar-caliber talent like Cooper, Sam Elliott, and Andrew Dice Clay. This is a woman with acting credits that could be added up on one hand. Again, a true arrival.

Now that I have seen the film twice, I want to see it again. Before the film, I knew who Gaga was. Now, I can't get enough. Interviews are devoured, videos are re-watched, and a rabbit hole dive down A Star Is Born clips has commenced. By taking on such a huge first leading role, Gaga has dropped a hook down my throat and cast a spell on me. No worries, I'll let this one stay for awhile.

You'll get the picture soon enough if you haven't already. In a few months, when she is dropping jaws and collecting trophies at the Oscars, you'll know. When she is electrifying you at home on Blu Ray 4K with her performance, you'll know.

When it comes to Lady Gaga and her visceral power, I was a slow learner. However, in the end, I learned. Then again, I wasn't alone. A lot of far more important people didn't realize what this woman had. She didn't just give an amazing performance: Gaga reminded every young girl that it's okay to be rejected...as long as you don't reject yourself.

Thanks to Bradley Cooper taking a chance and the rest of Hollywood falling asleep at the wheel, the world now knows that Lady Gaga aka Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta can really do it all.

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