'A Star is Born' - 31 of Lady Gaga's most essential albums, songs and performances

In 2008, Lady Gaga introduced her music to the world with the album "The Fame" in 2008. Most artists can't say their debut album boasted No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits like "Poker Face," but Lady Gaga is not most artists. Other global anthems such as "Just Dance" and "LoveGame" are also products of Gaga's first album. In March 2013, Rolling Stone named "The Fame" the 100th-best album of all time.

Just one year later, Gaga followed up "The Fame" with "The Fame Monster." Monster is the only word that Gaga could have added to the title of her repackaged sophomore album. She explained the album this way: "On my re-release 'The Fame Monster,' I wrote about everything I didn't write on 'The Fame.' While traveling the world for two years, I've encountered several monsters, each represented by a different song on the new record: my 'Fear of Sex Monster,' my 'Fear of Alcohol Monster,' my 'Fear of Love Monster,' my 'Fear of Death Monster,' my 'Fear of Loneliness Monster,' etc."

More recently, Gaga took the stage with legendary heavy metal band Metallica at the 2017 Grammy Awards. Together they performed "Moth Into Flame," and with lead singer James Hetfield's microphone malfunctioning (and Gaga being Gaga), Lady Gaga decided to crowd surf.

In 2011, Lady Gaga released "Born This Way" — her official sophomore LP. On that album is title track "Born This Way," which you can read more about later in this gallery. The album also boasts songs "The Edge of Glory" and "You and I."

On Feb. 5, 2017, Lady Gaga played on America's largest stage at the Super Bowl LI halftime show. She jumped from the roof, jumped into the crowd while catching a football, played the piano, danced in very Gaga costumes and went through a variety of hits: "God Bless America," "This Land Is Your Land," Poker Face," "Born This Way," "Telephone," "Just Dance," "Bad Romance" and "Million Reasons." Days later, she talked about the performance (and other things) with Ryan Seacrest.

On Oct. 21, 2016, Lady Gaga released her fifth and most recent studio album, titled "Joanne" after her late Aunt Joanne, whom Gaga is named after. "Joanne" is Gaga's most personal album to date. From the lead single "Perfect Illusion," which is presumably about her ex-fiance Taylor Kinney, to "Joanne." After her Super Bowl LI halftime performance, she announced a subsequent tour. "Joanne" became Gaga's fourth No. 1 album. With it, we entered the pink hat era.

The 2011 mega-single "Born This Way" has over 202 million views on YouTube and charted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song quickly broke several records and became synonymous with Gaga, including (at the time) quickest on iTunes to reach No. 1. All over the world, people played the song, and it became a rallying cry for accepting everybody's individual differences.

"Million Reasons" is the second single off "Joanne." Gaga premiered the song on a Facebook Live session. The single charted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Million Reasons" is a soothing, soulful differentiation from Gaga's vast association with high-tempo pop.

Superficially, Lady Gaga proclaiming that she is only on the edge of glory and not fully enthralled in glory seems off. But that would cheapen the song and her. Gaga revealed what "The Edge of Glory" is really about: "The song was about how when my grandma was standing over my grandfather while he was dying. There was this moment where I felt like he had sort of looked at her and reckoned that he had won in life. Like, 'I'm a champion. We won. Our love made us a winner.’" The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in 2016, Lady Gaga took the stage to tribute one of her idols, David Bowie, who had recently died at age 69. Beforehand, Gaga got a tattoo of Bowie. Afterward, Bowie's son sent out a "cryptic tweet" about the performance.

At the 2016 Oscars, Lady Gaga performed her single "Til It Happens to You" on stage surrounded by survivors of sexual assault. The song was on the soundtrack of a documentary about rape on college campuses titled "The Hunting Ground."

Off "The Fame Monster" album, "Bad Romance" peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 2009 hit song's accompanying music video has over 800 million views on YouTube.

"Poker Face" served as Gaga's second single off her debut album in 2008, which is one of the best-selling singles of all time. "Poker Face" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 40 weeks on the charts.

Lady Gaga introduced herself to us with "Just Dance," the lead single off her debut album in 2008. The single peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted for an astounding 49 weeks.

In 2011, Lady Gaga arrived at the Grammys inside of an egg. She later said that she had been inside that egg for three days. During the show, she performed "Born This Way."

At the 2015 Oscars, Lady Gaga performed a medley tribute to "The Sound of Music" . Many were surprised with just how talented Gaga is, stereotyping her before as just an eccentric act. Julie Andrews applauded Gaga for her portrayal.

In 2013, Gaga released "Applause" as the lead single from her fourth album, "ARTPOP." "Applause" peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2009, Lady Gaga met Queen Elizabeth II dressed as Queen Elizabeth I. She then performed "Speechless" for the royal family. And in 2016, Lady Gaga again appeared at the Royal Variety Performance.

In December 2016, Lady Gaga performed "Million Reasons," "A-YO" and "John Wayne" (all songs off "Joanne") on the runway of the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris.

Recently, Lady Gaga appeared as musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" the weekend following her "Joanne" album release in October 2016. She performed with stellar vocals during "A-YO" and "Million Reasons." Previously, Gaga had visited Studio 8H five times from 2009 to 2013.

To further the intimate appeal of "Joanne," Lady Gaga went on a short Dive Bar Tour leading up to the album's release. The tour was exactly as it sounds: Lady Gaga (massive star) traveling across the country and playing gigs at relatively tiny dive bars to small crowds. Unprecedented and awesome.

"Telephone" acted as the second single from "The Fame Monster." Originally, Gaga wrote the song for Britney Spears. When Spears didn't want it, Gaga kept it and featured Beyonce. The result? No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The largest transition of Gaga's career surprisingly came with the legendary Tony Bennett. The collaboration helped the masses see Gaga as a true musician and not just a flamboyant pop star. In 2015, the two paired for a classical jazz album titled "Cheek to Cheek" and subsequent tour.

Yes, she can act, too. Lady Gaga appeared in 15 episodes as the Countess from 2015-16 on the FX thrilling drama television series "American Horror Story." In January 2016, Gaga won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie.

One year before she dazzled America as the Super Bowl halftime show performer, Lady Gaga sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl 50 in 2016. Her pregame performance was widely received as excellent. What else did people expect from a six-time Grammy winner?

In 2013, Lady Gaga released her third album, "ARTPOP." And her release party, as shown in this photo, can be described only as extremely artsy. Though the album is by far her least popular or successful by metrics, it was still vital to her development.

In 2011, from her second album "Born This Way," "You and I" became a ubiquitous love anthem and was written about her love interest at the time. "You and I" peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2010, Lady Gaga accepted her MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year ("Bad Romance") in a meat dress. A dress made of meat.

If any song off "Joanne" feels most like what we've come to expect from Lady Gaga, it's "A-YO." "A-YO" is the second single from Gaga's most recent album. To this point, "A-YO" has only made it to No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. Regardless, it embodies what Gaga has always given us: a song that is fun as hell to listen to.

Lady Gaga quickly became familiar with paparazzi, so she wrote a song about all of the stresses that being so famous brings with "Paparazzi" in 2008. "Paparazzi" peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On Oct. 21, 2016, her "Joanne" album release date, Lady Gaga tweeted a surprise: She was going to be at her father's New York restaurant named Joanne Trattoria NYC. She worked the bar and signed copies of "Joanne" for her Monsters who showed up. Gaga told Beats 1 radio host Zane Lowe that if she were not as successful as she is, she would still be playing music at her father's restaurant. Full circle.