Lady Gaga, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta

Excited about bringing back Polaroid and "combining it with the digital era", Gaga was named Chief Creative Officer for a line of imaging products for the international optic company in January 2010 with the intent of creating fashion, technology and photography products. Her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, was sued in March by Rob Fusari; claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment; five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed both the lawsuit and a countersuit by Gaga. In April, Gaga was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year. While giving an interview to The Times, Gaga hinted at having Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as lupus, which is a connective tissue disease. She later confirmed with Larry King that she does not have lupus but "the results were borderline positive". With the television host, Gaga also revealed that she was among several artists who would have opened for Michael Jackson during his This Is It concert series at London's O2 Arena. "I was actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated. "We were going to open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it happen." She added: "I believe there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing duets with Michael on stage." In November 2010, one month after the singer reported assassination fears, a restraining order was issued against Russian Anastasia Obukhova, who had threatened to shoot her in the head.
• 2011–present: Born This Way
Gaga's second studio album and third major release Born This Way was released on May 23, 2011. She announced the title of the album during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major ... metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats" and referred to as an album "about what what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid", She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on the album for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day." Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level", Gaga characterized her new music as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level." Its arrival followed the release of its eponymous lead single on February 11, 2011, which was performed live for the first time at the 53rd Grammy Awards two days after its release. The song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.
Two other singles, "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory", the former being criticized for its references to Biblical characters Judas, Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, were released before the album, both placing in the top ten of the major musical markets. Upon release, Born This Way sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the United States, debuting atop the Billboard 200, and topping the charts in more than 20 other countries. Lending her vocals elsewhere, Gaga paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the animated feature film Gnomeo & Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", was released on February 11, 2011, without Gaga's vocals. The duet version is only featured in the film. In February 21 and 22, Gaga's concerts of her then-ongoing tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed in an HBO special, which was nominated for five awards at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Gaga undertook her job as a fashion columnist for V, where she wrote about her creative process, her studying of the world of pop culture, and her ability to tune into the evolution of pop-culture meme. In May 2011, Gaga told Australian radio show The Kyle & Jackie O Show that she would be coming to Sydney to perform a one-off concert in July 2011, to promote Born This Way, which occurred at Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday July 13, 2011.