The Fame

The Fame is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008, by Interscope Records. After joining KonLive Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different producers, primarily RedOne, Martin Kierszenbaum, and Rob Fusari. Musically, The Fame is an electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop record that displays influences from 1980s music. Lyrically, it visualizes Gaga's love of fame in general, while also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs, and sexual identity. The album was primarily promoted through The Fame Ball Tour and multiple television appearances, and was reissued as a deluxe edition with The Fame Monster on November 18, 2009.

The first two singles off the album, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" gained international success, topping the charts in several countries worldwide including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The subsequent singles, "LoveGame" and "Paparazzi", were commercial successes as well, charting within the top-ten of over ten countries worldwide. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" had a limited single release in Australia, New Zealand, and select European countries, where it became a modest success, while "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" and "Boys Boys Boys" served as promotional singles. The title track and "Starstruck" (featuring Space Cowboy and Flo Rida) would also chart.

The album received generally favorable reviews from critics, who commended its lyrical content, Gaga's musicianship, and vocal ability. It charted at number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, The Fame topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 193 non-consecutive weeks, the most time on top in history. It has been certified diamond in France and multi-platinum in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Fame became the fifth best-selling album of 2009, and has sold over 4.9 million copies in the United States as of January 2019. Combined with The Fame Monster, the album had sold over 18 million copies worldwide as of August 2019, making it one of the best selling albums of the 21st century.

The Fame has won multiple awards since its release. The album was nominated for a total of five Grammy Awards at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It won Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording for its single "Poker Face", and also won Best International Album at the 2010 Brit Awards. The album would notably help kickstart the late-2000s and early-2010s era of recession pop, further pioneered by artists such as Kesha and Katy Perry. In 2013 and 2022, Rolling Stone named The Fame as one of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums of All-Time". As of 2023, it is the 12th biggest album of all time on the US Billboard 200.

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