Celebrating 10 Years of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ Album

Lady Gaga’s iconic album Born This Way is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. To commemorate and recognize its cultural impact, the City of West Hollywood has officially declared May 23 as “Born This Way Day.” A street painting on Robertson Blvd. was created in tribute to the LGBTQ community and the album. When Born This Way was originally released in 2011, it shattered records around the world. To date, the album has more than 5.8 billion global streams, 5.2 million physical albums sold, and 31 million digital tracks sold. It was Lady Gaga’s first number-one album, debuted at number one in 25 countries, named one of Rolling Stone‘s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” and is certified, 4x platinum in the U.S.

Born This Way, my song and album, were inspired by Carl Bean, a gay black religious activist who preached, sung and wrote about being “Born This Way.” Notably his early work was in 1975, 11 years before I was born. pic.twitter.com/92oIuPQYHs — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) May 24, 2021

In addition to declaring May 23 as “Born This Way Day” and celebrating the street painting on Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath also presented a Key to the City to Lady Gaga with a note of thanks. “Thank you for encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud,” Horvath says. Concurrent with the unveiling of the colorful street painting is the kickoff of Pride season in West Hollywood with the annual One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, which runs from Harvey Milk Day (May 22) through the end of June Pride month (June 30).

How the look of Lady Gaga’s iconic album came together and why its style and sound still feel relevant ten years on. https://t.co/IiABv6A97p — British Vogue (@BritishVogue) May 24, 2021

The Haus of Gaga has put together a series of surprises that will roll out over the next month to celebrate the album’s anniversary, the community of fans around the world, and, of course, Lady Gaga herself. The anniversary celebration will include a very special collection of tracks from the album reimagined by prominent artists from the LGBTQ community and allies. Various partnerships, products, and merchandise will be announced shortly, and the Born This Way Foundation is working closely with New York and Youth Pride, sending goods and monetary donations along with notes of kindness to LGBTQ centers across the country to assist in their Pride celebrations.

Photos Courtesy of Social Media