Lady Gaga Gives Her Father 50% of All Her Earnings

Even as one of the biggest pop stars in the world that grosses millions of dollars, performs in arenas in front of thousands of fans, heads campaigns that get meetings with President Obama and opening a store in Barney’s New York, it is being reported that Lady Gaga still lives at home with her parents.  The singer’s Thanksgiving special, ‘A Very Gaga Thanksgiving’ premieres Thursday, and Gaga gives viewers an intimate look into her family and home life which includes her sleeping in the same Upper West Side room as she did when she was a child.

According to the New York Post, Gaga has a very close relationship with her family, and a unique business relationship with her father Joe Germanotta where he receives 50% of all her earnings through their companies Team Love Child and Mermaid Music. She also admires her dad so much that she purchased her father’s favorite restaurant for him and named it ‘Joanne’ after his sister who passed away. In previous interviews, Gaga credits her dad as being the one who helped her get off drugs after she dropped out of NYU. She told Elle magazine, “I’m married to my dad,” and later told Vanity Fair,“I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I’ve been in my father’s arms for two weeks, wishing [him] a Happy Father’s Day.”

According to IVillage:

Gaga’s father isn’t her manager, and doesn’t really work for her, per se. However, Joe did contribute something very important to her career: a fighting chance.

When Lady Gaga was still NYU freshman Stefani Germanotta, she decided to drop out to pursue her dream of music stardom. Rather than shooting her down, her dad, a self-made businessman, agreed to finance her efforts for one year. She scored her first music contract within the year. Two years later, in 2007, her father convinced her to kick a cocaine habit once and for all. More recently, the singer explained that her dad helped her write her hit “Edge of Glory.” Is it any wonder that Gaga feels she owes her father everything?

Entertainment Lawyer Josh Grier who represents artists like Wilco and Elvis Costello says that Gaga’s business deal with her father is unique, saying that virtually no one has any management deal of that kind.

“There’s really no justifiable sense to doing a 50/50 deal with anyone in your career, other than someone you’re partners in a band with. Certainly no artist entering a management deal does anything close to that — a commission is usually 15 to 20 percent.”

That’s a good way for Gaga to say ‘thanks Dad’ and keep it in the family. Now, Joe is able to live out his dream: work in the industry and manage aspiring artists on 50% of Lady Gaga’s dime.

The only question is, after giving 50% to Dad, 15-20% to management, 5% to business managers or whomever handles her finances and so forth, what’s left?

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