Lady Gaga is an American singer-songwriter and performer best known for her flamboyant outfits, provocative lyrics, and powerful vocal abilities. Her songs "Just Dance," "Bad Romance," and "Born This Way" have gained tremendous mainstream popularity. She began learning music at a young age and by the time she was a teenager, she was playing onstage in New York City clubs. She attended Manhattan's Convent of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls academy, before going on to study music at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She spent two years at Tisch before dropping out to pursue her own career. She started transforming herself from Germanotta into Lady Gaga after dropping out, with a style that mixed glam rock and over-the-top fashion design. She and Lady Starlight, a performance artist, created the Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow in 2007. Lady Gaga, who has written songs for Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls, and Britney Spears, was signed by Akon and Interscope Records in the same year and started working on her debut album, The Fame, which was released in 2008.