Receives Award Innovator At 38 Years Old, Lady Gaga: I Just Started

Lady Gaga when she received the award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards 2025 (Instagram @ldygaga)

JAKARTA - Lady Gaga through her speech at the iHeartRadio Music Awards 2025 when she received the Innovator Award, delivered a reply to age discrimination in the popular music industry.

Gaga used the speech to reminisce about the moments in her career that brought her to this point. She also responded to the view that women were considered "too old" when they reached their mid-30s.

"I don't know how to think about this, because winning awards that appreciate my entire career at the age of 38 is a difficult thing to understand," said Gaga, reported by NME, Wednesday, March 19.

"On the one hand, I feel like I've been doing this forever. (But) on the other hand, I know I've just started. So, even though the world may think a woman in her late 30s is old for a crazy pop star I guarantee, I'm just getting started," he added.

For the Die With A Smile' singer, innovation is an important element that has made him continue to work through music

"Innovation is not about breaking the rules; it's about writing your own rules and convincing the world that the rules belong to them from the start," he said. If I've learned something in three decades I've been doing this, that the most powerful innovation is your authenticity."

Then, Gaga continued her speech by paying tribute to her grandmother, whom she called a very brilliant Italian-American woman who paved the way for her to have a music career.

"They don't create technology or art; they create possibilities, shape the future with only their minds," he added.

In addition to the Innovator Award, Lady Gaga was also nominated for other awards, including Best Collaboration and Best Music Video both for the song Die With A Smile which was performed with Bruno Mars. He also received a nomination in the Favorite OnScreen category for the Chromatica Ball concert film.

Meanwhile, the Innovator Award was awarded after the singer released the seventh highly anticipated studio album, Mayhem, earlier this month. And since then, he has also announced his international tour schedule.