Money is completely boring to me. It means nothing, except it feeds my art. Every penny I make goes back into the Haus of Gaga. My Haus of Gaga is something like Andy Warhol’s Factory. I have a small bunch of really creative people who make up the Haus and they work with me on my sets, my costumes, my jewellery and the concept of Gaga. It’s my team and we come up with crazy ideas and make them happen. I do make a lot of money, but I don’t want to own flash cars; I want to make Lady Gaga the biggest star in the world, and that takes a lot of work and creativity.
—Lady Gaga on the unimportance of making money off her gimmicks. Forbes estimates her annual earnings at $62 million. [via]
Gosszip
Oh, skeet skeet.
My Gay Rant
It would be nice to have seen “Every penny I make goes back into the Haus of Gaga OR <>”
I like the fact that she claims to be in the music business with the ultimate goal of creating a music icon, but if the money is really not the motivation, why not give some of that cash to a charity (hey, maybe even providing instruments to poor urban school districts)… idk, $62 million dollars is a lot of capital to retain/reinvest in oneself if one is truly not interested in the cash…
SouLKid
omg, this is the biggest bullsh*t i’ve heard in a while.
alex
@My Gay Rant: I’m buying what she’s dropping.
Sometimes there is a point to investing in the arts rather than donating your money to charities. In the case of Lady Gaga, go to a local under-21 night of a gay club in your town and you’ll see that she’s inspired young gays to dress crazy, act crazy, and be themselves. It might not be high art, but there is a virtue in the glamour she’s giving her “little monsters” who might otherwise just be the isolated freaks and dweebs of their high schools.
My Gay Rant
@alex: I am 19, and I do go to 18 + gay clubs in the Philly-NYC area and hear the screams when Lady Gaga is blasted from the speakers… I am just arguing that the $62 million she earns per year is far more than necessary to “go back to the haus of Gaga” in my opinion… she is at a posiiton in her career where she could support and expand haus of Gaga whilst increasing her community altruism through more traditional, monetary support of charities. She is inspiring her “little monsters” by the art itself, an art she was creating when she was still a little known artisit with an equally small income…. idk, $62 million invested in “my sets, my costumes, my jewellery and the concept of Gaga” seems slightly excessive (in addition to the fact that it falsely makes her appear to retain no earnings for herself). The record company covers cost of production, marketing, and distribution of her music, so the $62 isn’t being reinvested to cover these costs. Sorry, I am ranting, but as you can probably tell by my name, that is what I do ^_^
OhPlease
Please, it’s easy to say “money is boring” when you grow up stinking rich. Whatever, Gaga.
Rob
The Queerty readers sure are in a good mood today.
Revemupman
Money is boring, all it does is pay bills. As soon as you get it, it flies right out of your pocket.
L.
OK, so I’m not Warhol’s biggest fan, but even I can see how much out there is Lady G comparing herself to him.
Kev C
Gaudy ass mafia princess.
jb
with that quote, it does sound like she’s very self-centered and stingy about everything besides her artwork, but i think the overall message she’s trying to say is that she cares more about what she does than what she earns. she’s very dedicated to her art and her fans, and also the community, and that comment doesn’t accurately describe her philanthropy. i think she was just exaggerating here to portray the level of devotion she gives her work as an artist. she actually has done a lot of charity work and given donations, including a mac viva glam campaign to raise awareness for AIDS, marched for gay rights at the National March for Equality in DC, and she’s stated that the music video for “Alejandro” is a tribute to all of her gay fans and can be seen as a protest against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy in the US. here’s another quote from her evidencing even more charity work (regarding Haiti relief): “I donated all of the proceeds from one show worth of ticket sales as well as all the of the merchandise from that show and for 24 hours we had a ‘Gaga for Haiti’ day where everything that was bought on the Web site… every dollar went to Haiti,” Gaga said. So i don’t know what she meant when she said every penny goes back to haus of gaga. again, probably just exaggeration. that quote and her other charity work if you want to read about it can be found on these websites
http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/1944-lady-gaga
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/scene/article/150759–lady-gaga-s-humanitarian-aspirations
http://earsucker.com/2010/06/21/lady-gaga-donates-pokerface-necklace-for-charity/
christopher di spirito
Lady Gaga’s earnings allowed her to rent a fabulous $25,000 a month house in the Hollywood Hills with a pool and a canyon view stretching all the way to Century City.
Not bad, Stephanie.
Hilarious
Yeah right. Anyone who says they don’t like money is lying through their teeth.
Never had to worry about money my entire life and wouldn’t give that up for the world.
I don’t see why she feels the need to lie about liking to be able to buy whatever she wants…
geoffrey ZuHone
SHOW ME YOUR TEETH!!!!
lmao
Amaturus
Charities are for old people concerned about legacy. Let the young be frivolous with their money.
anonymouse
It’s her money, why the fuck not do what she wants with it?
Also: Even though she was born in a wealthy family, she used none of it and even worked as a stripper to pay the bills.
so.
be jealous.
jason
They’re all in it for the money. Every single one of them. Look at how much Madonna made off her fans, including us gay fans. She’s got more assets than you could poke a stick at. Material girl, indeed.
Rikard
so she reinvests in her business? bill gates was the richest man in the world for a decade and gave a pittance to charity, until he got married and his wife pointed out what a douche he was. if Ms Gaga survives the explosion (still underway) she will no doubt find some fine charities to enrich. personaly, i’d like to take her to some galeries, salons and auctions and see what kind of art collection we could put together.
Correy
Gee, I can think of many organizations, groups, etc. that wouldn’t find her money boring at all. I thought she wasn’t very talented before, add unbelievably arrogant and oblivious to that.
We as a group need to STOP attaching our identities to labels, musicians, movie stars, and images of perceived importance. It’s cheapening us. We need to define ourselves on our own terms.
Isn’t that what the gay rights movement supposedly gave us? Nope. Instead we’re on a constant search for new crap that we take with a spoonful of sugar because some marketing exec attached taffeta, something sparkly, and the word “fabulous” to it, stuck it next to a “boi” with a six pack of shaved abs and we’ll buy a plate full of dog shit if our friends all pressure us into liking it.
Lady Gaga is just the new flash in the pan pushed down our throats.
Daveny
I’ll sum it up………..BULLSHIT!
Mike
@alex:
If absorbing 500K into a tampon skit at the music awards is more important than charities, then I’ll be rummaging through the trash for my roommate’s tampon. I clearly am not doing something right.
She’s a shock artist and she knows what to say to make the Gays go crazy. She knows her target audience and how to please them. It’s good business technique, not art.
Hilarious
@Mike: Not a very good business technique either, just ask Rihanna.
Here today, Big Bird tomorrow.
Mike
@My Gay Rant: Actually, she donates $20,000 to a charity for homeless LGBT youth every night of her Monster Ball tour. That’s pretty generous of her, no?
Anthagio
@My Gay Rant: She does give back to charity… she just doesn’t parade that around either because she doesn’t do it for attention.
Anthagio
And I’d like to add: Why are we blaming her for what her label pays her? She has no control over the amount of money she makes. She didn’t PERSONALLY make 64,000,000, that’s what her empire made. She’s very passionate and dedicated to her art (yes, music is an art form).
Anthagio
@OhPlease: Because it’s Gaga’s fault that her parents had money… Gaga moved out on her own and worked her ass off to get to where she is today WITHOUT her parent’s money.