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Rob Fusari filed a $30.5 million lawsuit against the Grammy Award-winning performer, saying his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared.
Rob Fusari filed a $30M suit against Lady Gaga in NYC
As they co-wrote songs such as “Paparazzi” and “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich,” which would appear on her debut album, “The Fame,” he transformed Germanotta into Lady Gaga, a name adapted from Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” the lawsuit said.
In a 2009 interview with the AP, Lady Gaga said her “realization of Gaga was five years ago, but Gaga’s always been who I am.”
“I was Gaga from the time that I was 19 through my first record deal,” the 23-year-old said of her over-the-top, avant-garde style, which has captured the imaginations of millions of fans. “I always dressed like that before people knew me as Lady Gaga. I was always that way … I stuck out like a sore thumb.”
According to the lawsuit, Lady Gaga and Fusari’s relationship turned romantic and then became a business partnership in May 2006, when they created a joint venture called Team Love Child LLC to promote her career. Fusari’s share was 20 percent, it said.
Fusari – whose account of his role in the multiplatinum-selling artist’s early career has been told in interviews – says he introduced Lady Gaga to a record executive who ultimately shepherded her to Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records, which released “The Fame” in 2008. The album has sold more than 3 million copies in the United States; Fusari has a producing credit.
But the lawsuit says their personal and business relationship had soured by then and he has been denied a 20 percent share of song royalties, 15 percent of merchandising revenue and other money he’s owed. He acknowledges getting checks for about $611,000 but says that isn’t his full share.
Lady Gaga won two Grammys in January: best dance recording, for “Poker Face,” and best electronic/dance album, for “The Fame.”