And although it suddenly seems Lady G has appeared out of nowhere – performing at the Miss Universe Pageant, on “So You Think You Can Dance” and a number of television talk shows, as well as landing an opening spot on New Kids on the Block‘s current reunion trek – the singer, whose given name is Stefani Germanotta, explained the road to her debut release, The Fame, has been a long one.

“I was a go-go dancer, I was a waitress, I was bartending – I did everything,” GaGa told Pollstar. “I worked as an intern for music companies. I just wanted to be around music and what I love.

“I started playing gigs very young in [New York City] and I just never stopped. I hustled.”

Her live career began at open mike nights in clubs like The Bitter End in Greenwich Village while she was still in her teens. Unlike many dance acts, who perform to tracks on a boom-box when starting out, Lady G chose to take a more non-traditional approach that set her apart right away.

“I did a couple of different things,” she explained. “First I started at the piano – because I play piano – and then I had a band that I put together in college that lasted about a year.

“I thought about doing the boom-box thing. We used to bring one as a prop, but what I actually used to do was play my beats off my Macbook Pro. I would set it up on top of the piano and play acoustic piano with really synthetic beats.

“Then I found this place in the heart of Brooklyn where they press vinyl dubplates like the reggae cats use, and I put all my beats on vinyl. That’s when I met Lady Starlight and she’d spin my beats during the show and I’d play synthesizer.”

Choreography soon followed and GaGa’s live act evolved into something she describes as “very variety, kind of 1970s.”

In fact, the multi-talented singer/songwriter and dancer doesn’t really think of herself as a traditional musician, but as more of a performance artist who’s constantly changing.

Now Lady G has evolved from playing the sometimes gritty clubs of Manhattan to performing in front of an arena full of NKOTB fans and their daughters, an honor she received by virtue of the song she wrote for the band’s comeback album. Has she been forced to reign in her wild, theatrical and sometimes tongue-in-cheek “shock art” live show at all?

“No, I’ve never toned myself down,” she said. “I don’t know how to do that. It’s funny, everybody really close to me says that something happens in my brain and you can see it in my face when I perform. I just go into my performance zone and it’s a really crazy space. There’s really no telling what I’ll do.”

“So we haven’t toned it down, it’s just different. There’s more choreography and the fashion is a lot more intense. It changes the way you move onstage when you’ve got three feet of shoulder pads. And there’s technology that I’ve built for this show.

“The act is changing, but the through-line is that it’s fashion-pop. It’s the future and technology and pollution and music. It’s New York. It’s so fucking New York.”

GaGa’s musical philosophy and the energy of her live show are well represented on The Fame, which is stuffed to bursting with potential hits, including catchy pop songs (“Boys, Boys Boys”), funky dance-floor ravers (“Poker Face”), thumping electro-rockers (“The Fame”) and urban-flavored ballads (“Paparazzi”). Think Pink meets Gwen Stefani meets Paul Oakenfold meets The Pussycat Dolls.

The infectious first single from the disc, “Just Dance,” generated a great deal of anticipation for the full-length and – well – danced its way up charts across the globe this summer.

Here’s the fun, funky and oh-so-fashionable clip for “Poker Face.”

Speaking of The Pussycat Dolls, Lady G’s quickly expanding resume includes writing songs for the sassy ladies, as well as a couple of tracks for the upcoming Britney Spears album, Circus.

So how is the singer dealing with all of this coming at her so quickly? In signature Lady GaGa style, modesty tempered with just enough diva attitude to make it interesting.

“Most artists don’t go on arena tours before their album drops,” she explained. “But I don’t think anybody can deny my abilities as a performer. That’s the bottom line.”

“It’s the same thing with ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and Miss Universe. I had no business being on those shows. I really didn’t.

“Other than that the dance community and the underground club culture community just love me and they said to them ‘If you wanna be the new and you want edgy shit, you should have GaGa on your show.’

“I’m so humbled by that. I’m so appreciative and I thank God every day.”