Photos of Lady Gaga from early in her career have gone viral online over the last couple of days.
Among them are pics of Gaga performing at a gay underwear party on Fire Island in 2008.
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It all began when the X account @PopCulture2000s shared a video of Gaga performing “Poker Face” in a club that year.
Another user, @urdadssidepiece, retweeted the footage with a photo performing in front of an audience of men in their underwear. He said, “My favorite piece of early Gaga lore is that she performed at the Fire Island underwear party.”
My favorite piece of early Gaga lore is that she performed at the fire island underwear party https://t.co/MZZVmgmsNJ pic.twitter.com/w1HJDTXOs2
— grant
(@urdadssidepiece) July 31, 2026
Another man replied, saying he attended the infamous gig, and said it was “magical”. He also added photos.
I was there and it was magical. Still can’t believe it
https://t.co/k9WZ0zDP2T
— Carlos (@zoneofcarlos) July 31, 2026
Cherry Grove performance
Queerty looked into the story to find out more details, and yes, according to the Fire Island Pines Historical Society, Gaga performed at the Ice Palace on Fire Island on 08.08.08 for its ‘Panty Revolution’ party. She appeared alongside Cazwell.
She did it for just $500.
Apparently, Gaga was booked several weeks in advance, before her breakthrough hit “Just Dance” began to climb the charts. This was before the release of her debut album, The Fame, in October 2008.
Between the booking being made and her appearance, “Just Dance” blew up. The night’s promoter, Daniel Nardicio, knowing Gaga could now command a much higher fee, thought she’d probably pull the date.
Michael Musto, writing for NewNowNext, said that Nardicio wrote to Gaga “saying he knew she would inevitably have to cancel the gig and he totally understood that. But Gaga replied, basically ‘Are you kidding?’ The nouveau chanteuse kept her word and did the performance…”.
Here she is on the cover of HX, promoting her appearance at Ice Palace.
And here’s a video of some of that show.
Lollapalooza
This is not the first time that early footage of Lady Gaga has gone viral. A couple of years ago, rare footage of Gaga performing at Lollapalooza in 2007 emerged. This was before anyone knew who she was. She performed on one of the festival’s smaller stages with the DJ Lady Starlight.
The two women became friends after meeting at a party in Manhattan. They used to collaborate on events and did a short-lived run on shows called the Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue, with Starlight spinning glam and metal songs between Gaga’s performances of her own tracks.
One particular clip shows Gaga performing “Paparazzi” to the small crowd. The audience members are wholly unaware they’re hearing a future classic before anyone else.
Footage has been unearthed of Lady Gaga performing “Paparazzi” in 2007 at Lollapalooza. https://t.co/IcIJQXUVqB
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 9, 2024
And here’s a longer video of the full set.
A previously unseen recording of Lady Gaga and Lady Starlight’s full set at Lollapalooza (2007)
pic.twitter.com/DVwLvHsZoi
— Ryan | Lady Gaga
(@ryanleejohnson) October 9, 2024
Related
Lady Gaga finally responds to those ex-classmates who told her she’d “never be famous”
“This is why you can’t give up when people doubt you or put you down—gotta keep going.”
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