Music-mix.ew.com – Despite her best efforts, Lady Gaga doesn’t always live by her own rules. At this January’s Grammy Awards, for example, she was excluded from the Best New Artist category because her single “Just Dance” had been nominated the previous year for Best Dance Recording.

But rules are there to be broken. Or at least, in the case of the Recording Academy’s book of laws, they are there to be amended after a suitable period of rumination. In December, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said of Gaga’s ineligibility, “There will be some changes so that particular scenario won’t repeat itself.” And today, the Academy announced an alteration in their laws which allows acts to be eligible for the Best New Artist category, “if an artist/group is nominated (but does not win) for the release of a single or as a featured artist or collaborator on a compilation or other artist’s album before the artist/group has released an entire album (and becomes eligible in this category for the first time).”

In an explanatory statement, the Academy noted, “More and more, the first release of a new artist is as a featured artist on someone else’s album or, the new artist may release a single long before the release of his/her/their entire first album. By current rules, if the other artist’s album or the new artist’s single receives a nomination, the new artist may never have the opportunity to compete in the Best New Artist category. With this change, each artist will have at least one opportunity to enter in this important and highly visible category.”

Obviously, this rule change is too late to help Lady Gaga—though, all things considered, the Grammy Awards are probably a distant memory to her at this point anyway. But what do you think of the rule change? Do you agree with the Academy that an artist can still be “new” even if they’ve been nominated the year before?

Tonight marks the first of 3 sold out shows GaGa will be playing at her home town’s famed Madison Square Garden arena. In her high school yearbook, GaGa stated that her dream was to headline at the historic venue, and now that dream has come true! Help celebrate this accomplishment by tweeting #MadisonSquareGaGa.

Bostonherald.com – It’s tough to go all gaga for Lady Gaga when she blows off her own press conference!

Here’s the deal: Gaga, who is the new creative director at Polaroid, turned up at the MIT Museum in Cambridge yesterday to tour the galleries, check out the iconic camera company’s archives and have a Polaroid taken of herself baring her Teeth. Lovely.

But when it was time to meet the press – not the Paparazzi, mind you – Gaga was outta there in a flash!

She took her fantabulous self – shod in black Frankenstein platforms, blace lace and not much else – out the back door and hopped into a black Chevy Suburban . But she did sign autographs for 30 or so of her Monsters hanging out by her caravan. One Cambridge egghead was so lathered up over Her Ladyship, he had the pop princess sign a lab instrument!

“It’s kinda exciting,” Bryan Owens, 24, an MIT student told the Track. “Her edginess and creativity embody MIT. We’re all about pushing the borders here.”

Polaroid CEO Stephen Miller said during the Gaga-less presser that he and the other company cheeses had a “great session” with the Lady. He went onto call her “one of the decade’s most interesting artists.” He also said she was “real,” “authentic,” and “unedited.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Lady GaGa performs at The 12th Annual White Tie and Tiara Ball to Benefit Elton John AIDS Foundation in Association with Chopard at Woodside on June 24, 2010 in Windsor, England.

Click on the thumbnail above to view the full-sized photos.

MTV — They wore leather and lace, stiletto heels, studded jackets, crowns and Diet Coke-can curlers. Two of them even got engaged.

Yes, Lady Gaga’s little monsters were out in full force on Monday night at the Bell Centre, for the kickoff of the latest North American leg of her Monster Ball Tour. And in a show of dedication that’s practically unparalleled in pop music today, they got there early, waited in lines that stretched all the way down the Avenue Des Canadiens-de-Montreal and around the Rue de la Montagne (trust us, that’s far), braved brutal winds and some genuinely ominous thunderclaps … all in the name of Gaga.

And after the show was over — after two-plus hours, not to mention all the time they had spent waiting just to get inside the Bell Centre, was it all worth it?

“Absolutely. It was the most emotional night of my life,” said Melissa Sassone, wearing a pair of signature Gaga shades. “When she was speaking to the crowd, she touched us all. We know her, we feel her, we know what she’s been through, we’ve all been through it. So when she’s speaking to the crowd, we all feel it. It was beautiful, inspirational. My life began tonight.”

“I love her, and she does everything that I want to do. My favorite moment was ‘Alejandro,’ ” Gaga fan Michael Perry added. “The costume changes were great. The whole show was so great. It was like the ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ Judy Garland all over again. It was the best thing I’ve ever been to.”

And while some monsters loved the fashion, the attitude and the songs (set-closer “Bad Romance” was a particular fave), most said the best parts of Gaga’s performance were the moments when she simply spoke to the crowd.

“She was just so beautiful … and she said things that were so touching. She said it doesn’t matter who you are, just be yourself,” Catherine Dupressoir said. “She makes me feel free. I feel like I could do anything I want to.”

“It made me cry the whole time,” Dupressoir’s friend, Olivia Bellemara added. “She’s so inspirational. She’s my idol. If I could meet her, I would cry in her arms.”

Of course, for others — like 11-year-old Gabriella Bagnoli, who got tickets to the concert as a conformation gift from her godmother (who also accompanied her to the show) — the reasons for loving Gaga’s performance were a bit simpler.

“Yeah, it was amazing. Lady Gaga was so extraordinary. I like when she the turns and dances,” Bagnoli beamed. “I like her fashion styles and the way she sings. She has a good voice and attitude, too. She inspires me.”

Bagnoli’s 7-year-old sister, Olivia, liked “the big ball” Gaga donned for “Bad Romance.” And speaking of romance, it was alive and well at the Bell Centre, thanks mostly to David Hopps, who raised the bar for Gaga fans everywhere when he proposed to his girlfriend, Jenny Smith, during the show.

“I had no idea!” Smith said afterward, showing off her brand-new engagement ring. “I was really obsessed with her, and he had no choice but to be obsessed with her too. He bought me these tickets as a pre-birthday present, and then he proposed to me during ‘Love Game.’ ”

“I was pretty nervous,” Hopps laughed. “I really, honestly thought she’d say no, because she’s way too pretty for me.”

Gaga is nominated in AfterElton.com’s The Next Great Gay Icon poll. You can read the mini article about her below:

The Pros: With her outlandish, drag queen reminiscent outfits, as well as her outspoken and outsized personality, it would be easy to name the bisexual Miss Gaga as the Gay Icon of our generation. Her sense of style and outlandish outfits not only more than meets the qualifications, but her gay activism almost seals the deal. From her speech at the Video Music Awards where she thanked “god and her gays” to her marches for equality to her recent appearance on Larry King Live, this girl is definitely on our side. And then there are those videos. Truly worthy of a Gay Icon.

The Cons: Lady Gaga may have star power, but does she have the power to stay relevant for the long haul? Is her image really going to carry her for decades to come, or will her crown be taken by someone who has the ability to change more easily with the coming trends? It’s hard not to worry that Gaga may end up like the great Cyndi Lauper: in one day, out the next.

Lady Gaga made her first entry on Forbes Magazine’s annual Celebrity Power List, debuting at number 4. Beating out the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears, and Johnny Depp. Lady Gaga broke down the door to fame with outlandish outfits and quirky videos, including one that featured her and Beyonce poisoning an unappreciative boyfriend. Bringing in an estimated $31 million with a 106-date tour that grossed $95 million, Lady Gaga is also a marketer’s dream, teaming up with Polaroid, Virgin Mobile, Monster Cable and Viva Glam.

Click here to view the full Forbes list.

Montreal Gazette — In a word: redemption.

In November, Lady Gaga chose Montreal as the launch pad for her Monster Ball Tour, which she unveiled to some 12,000 lucky attendees. But despite being filled with promise and good ideas, the ramshackle performance failed to live up to the hype. The concert just wasn’t ready for prime time.

Seven months later, she’s back, relaunching the “2010 Summer North-American Monster Ball Tour,” again in Montreal, before a whopping 17,500 fans last night at the Bell Centre. Don’t let the similar name deceive you – it’s a whole different show, polished to shine and ready for prime time.

Like something from Broadway, or the pop-opera she bragged was in the works last fall, the four-act, razzle-dazzle affair came off like a cross between the Wizard of Oz, Grease and Madonna’s Truth or Dare.

Speaking of Madge, Gaga is finally at the point where she can convincingly be said to be giving the queen of pop a run for her money, not to mention her crown.

With ample costume changes, hydraulics and airtight dance choreographies, this was big-league entertainment value. And let’s not forget the songs – punchy, hook-filled dance-pop, in an array of flavours.

She opened with Dance In the Dark, a Madonna-esque (speak of the devil) synth-pop gem sung from behind a white curtain, with Gaga shaking her hips and striking theatrical feline poses.

Cut to a night-time street scene, complete with neon signs (“sexy ugly,” “liquor,” “implants, sedation, dentistry”), a broken-down car and dancers in edgy urban attire.

Sporting a bright yellow Marilyn Monroe do, a funky purple jacket with impossibly high shoulder pads, and not much else, she followed with a flurry including smash single Just Dance, Beautiful, Dirty, Rich, and the Fame – stripping down (jacket first, then oversized purple eyewear) and switching up (red cape-dress, more headgear) as she went.

Following “the glitter way,” Gaga and her crew then ended up in the subway for the playfully provocative Lovegame, the celebratory Boys Boys Boys (dedicated to her “Canadian gay boys,” and featuring her male dancers getting down in their underwear), and the Beyoncé duet Telephone.

Every song was a romp, a campy, funky, clubby showtune with an array of surprises to keep things moving. She finally slowed it down with the power-ballad Brown Eyes, somehow making us forget, almost, that she was sitting at the piano in studded black lingerie,

She spontaneously previewed a new tune (another compelling torch song – which was not on the set list), and drew cheers and a singalong with a fiery (literally, her piano was in flames) rendition of her hit Speechless.

As the paper’s print deadline closed in, she was coming into the homestretch. With monster hits Poker Face, Paparazzi and Bad Romance still to come, her fans were in for one heckuva finale (with Acts 3 and 4 set in Central Park and, finally, at the Monster Ball).

But Gaga had already accomplished what she set out to do – create a state of the art, fashion-forward but still fun, friendly and lull-less pop concert for her “little monsters.”

MTV — Will Lady Gaga be working with the dead on the upcoming leg of her Monster Ball Tour?

In a story published Wednesday (June 23) in British tabloid The Sun,, the newspaper reported that Gaga has reached out to Gunther von Hagens, a controversial anatomist who invented a technique for preserving cadavers called plastination and is responsible for the popular traveling exhibition “Body Worlds.”

The Sun quoted “a friend” of Gaga as saying “she is fascinated by Gunther’s work and life … [Gaga] sees a kindred spirit and is hoping to meet him in New York. They have spoken over e-mail and it’s gone well. She is keen to have some Body Worlds element in one of her shows.”

The source went on to say that Gaga is aiming to incorporate von Hagens’ work into her tour by the time it gets to Las Vegas, which doesn’t happen until March of 2011.

“It would be good to top this tour — which is already out-there — with something nobody has done before, using dead bodies as part of a gig,” the source said.

While it all sounds a bit outrageous, given the popularity of the “Body Worlds” exhibition and Gaga’s penchant for provocation, it’s not as implausible as it might seem. In a statement to MTV News on Wednesday, von Hagens said he would “offer no comments on conversations that have already taken place with the singer or her representatives,” but added that he “welcomes the opportunity” to work with Gaga.

“As someone who practices the violin every day, I feel that music is vital to our humanity and fundamental to our wellbeing. The post-mortal plastinated body on the other hand is a momento mori, a reminder that we must all die,” he continued. “To create a convergence of both these profound subjects and ideas would be a wonderful challenge. To do so with a risk-taking, boundary-pushing artist like Lady Gaga would be a meeting of the minds and I look forward to it.”

A rep for Gaga’s label had not responded to MTV News’ request for comment on the story at press time.

Photographers and stars of the new Bravo reality show, Double Exposure, Markus Klinko and Indriani recently spoke about meeting Gaga last summer during a photo shoot celebrating Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary. Read the interview excerpt below:

Do you have any favorite people you have shot with?

MK: Lady Gaga. I was really startled by the deliberate and intellectual approach she has toward her craft. When I met her, I felt like I had just met Madonna.

IP: I wouldn’t say she’s Madonna. She’s really her own person, and each decision she makes regarding her image is completely new and hasn’t been done before