Lady Gaga is just 28 years old. Seems she’s been around a long time. Not as long as Tony Bennett, her recent “Cheek to Cheek” duet partner, but a while. She feels it too. After years of relentless touring and a disappointing ARTPOP album (hey, somebody had to say no to something by Jeff Koons), Gaga is off on a fresh start. She dumped her manager and she’s moving in a new direction. Her talents, which are myriad, were by her own estimate being underutilized.
“In some ways my talents were not being used to their full potential,” Lady Gaga said in an interview with AP. Tony Carter, her now dismissed longtime manager, must be surprised to hear it. Carter escorted Gaga far higher up the charts than most men ever take a Lady. She is and wants to be known as an artist, which is tough when you have her kind of celebrity. (AP again: “artists need to speak more about how media treats the artists and making the distinction between the celebrity.”) Then again, the artist Gaga is not giving back any of the $100 million she made from putting her celebrated name on perfume.