Glam rocker's claim to fame

Lady Gaga says her spat with Christina Aguilera was blown out of propertion. Photo / Supplied

Lady Gaga is the stroppy avant-garde, modern-day glam rocker from New York who claims she's going to be bigger than Madonna - or so some would have you believe.

Although Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has dominated the charts with infectious pop songs like Poker Face since bursting on to the scene just over a year ago, she has also been mocked by journalists and musicians.

So I'm understandably anxious during the silence as her publicist hands her the phone. It's just enough time to scan my questions to check there's nothing that will just add fuel to an already ferocious media storm.

The 23-year-old star had just performed at the Brit Awards in London and travelled through the Swiss Alps, to arrive late at night at her hotel in Bologna, Italy. Chances were she'd be tired and not in the mood for talking.

Two questions in and I was right. "How's your European tour going?" I ask. "Everything is going really great, thank you."

The silence, and my anxiety, return, so I adopt plan B - rip up the questions, disperse with the niceties and refer to the hype that surrounds her wherever she now goes, which thankfully, appears to be Lady Gaga's trigger to talk.

"To be honest I'm just in my own world. I'm always writing music and focused on the work. I just really try to keep to myself. As much as I travel with a creative team, I don't travel with an entourage of friends who tell me how fabulous I am all day long - you know what I mean?"

Before I even have the chance to answer she adds: "I'm not interested in being a celebrity is what I mean to say."

It's a surprising - and refreshing - statement from a woman who titled her debut album The Fame after making a name for herself in New York's Lower East Side underground club scene by stripping down to next to nothing in shock-art performances.

In turn, Germanotta is surprised that I find it refreshing: "Really? I'm much more terrified by celebrity than anything. And I'm always wondering and asking myself constantly if I'm nice enough to reporters because I'm quite stand-offish.

"I keep to myself because I get asked very invasive questions. Sometimes I get asked questions - people have so much nerve - things that are just really not nice and I think to myself, `At what liberty are you to ask me those questions?' And then I say to myself, `Ah, well if I'm a celebrity, then I guess it's okay'."

It would be easy to see this not only as an attack on all media but as a swipe at me personally, but it's clear it is not.

There's a vulnerability about Germanotta that makes you believe she really is struggling with the perils of fame and she assures me her love-hate relationship with the media is on a case-by-case by basis, and that so far she's enjoying our little chat.

"Of course, I would prefer it if the work would speak for itself, but that's not the world we live in anymore. More than anything, I just don't want people to think I'm not a nice person. I just protect my egg if that makes any sense. Music and art is my golden goose."

Germanotta's insecurity is understandable when you closely examine all the negative media attention she's received. The infamous British press, for instance, made a huge deal of a tabloid interview with Alan Donohoe from post-punk rockers The Rakes after he launched a scathing verbal attack on the singer-songwriter, calling her an "ugly prostitute" who sold "trash" to kids.

Then there was the fuss made over comments in the highbrow New York Times' Moment blog in which she was accused of "fashion plagiarism". In later posts, the writer attempts to explain his harsh criticism of Lady Gaga's "loving-hands-at-home versions" of dresses by avant-garde designers, claiming that "it's like Chalayan or Margiela recreating one of her songs, titling it Joker Face and scoring a hit single".

And there are the "bigger than Madonna" reports and the most-highly publicised spat of them all - "Gaga-guilera-gate", which arose when the LA Times quizzed Christina Aguilera on whether, post-baby, she'd copied Germanotta's style. "I'm not quite sure who this person is, to be honest," the pint-sized pop star hit back. "I don't know if it's a man or a woman," she hissed.

It is, perhaps, what such a public persona should expect _ especially as one as colourful and as controversial in her style as Germanotta. But she's not above feeling the impact. "You don't write your own story. The story I get to write is the story of my album, and I genuinely try to stay away from all of that. At the end of the day, everything I put on the radio, into your ears, into your children's ears has to be much stronger than everything they write."

Germanotta does want to make it clear, however, that she only has immense admiration for Madonna and her ability to continually recreate herself. And, Lady Gaga v Aguilera? Well, that's been completely blown out of proportion, she says. "There's nothing in that story. I don't think she copies me. She's a lovely girl and she's very talented and I'm lovely and talented. Let's all be blondes together."

For all the attention-grabbing headlines, there is no denying that Germanotta's incredibly talented.

Originally spotted for her song-writing talents by music legend Jimmy Iovine, she was partnered with hip-hop star Akon, who recognised her vocal abilities and signed her a joint deal with his own label.

In New Zealand alone, Lady Gaga has had two No1 singles from The Fame - the first, Just Dance, followed quickly by Poker Face, which has gone double platinum and been in the singles chart for an astounding 28 weeks.

It is why so many fans assume it is Lady Gaga - undoubtedly the hottest property in pop right now - who is headlining as opposed to supporting the Pussy Cat Dolls at their Vector Arena concert in Auckland this month. But who's hotter is really irrelevant to Germanotta. What matters is that her fans love her as much as she insists she loves them: "They are so incredible and wonderful. I have the most creative, gorgeous and fashionable fans on the planet."

She says she goes out of her way to show how grateful she is. "I'm very good about making sure I chat to them. Any time anyone asks for an autograph or wants a picture, I always do it and I'm very proud of that. I let fans on my tour bus and I make them tea and give them cookies and chips and things."

As our phone call, which started so chilly but now feels like a conversation with a long-lost friend, draws to a close, I ask if there's anything else she wants to add.

Germanotta thinks long and hard about it and, of course, there is something. "I want to see a kiwi, they're so cute." They're hardly the parting words you would expect from a so-called diva, but once again a sign of a much more vulnerable, and far less confident, Lady Gaga, than I had anticipated.

* Lady Gaga supports the Pussycat Dolls at the Vector Arena, Auckland, May 16.