Winter Music Conference: Lady GaGa gears up, strips down

Miami's annual dance music sleaze-a-thon, the Winter Music Conference, is nearly in full swing today, with most attendees wandering Collins Avenue looking for the best DJ events/hotel parties by 2 p.m. No one gets up before noon.

Some of today's best events are at the Raleigh, where New York's Lady GaGa is making her WMC debut at an Armani Exchange-sponsored rooftop terrace soiree.

Interscope has high hopes for the newly signed dance diva, who has already written songs for several artists (including Pussycat Dolls) and is on the verge of signing a publishing contract to augment her label deal.

"Jimmy [Iovine] and I get along great," she says of the Interscope honcho from the rooftop of the Raleigh. "I'm the kind of Italian Brookyln girl he would have liked to take to the prom," she laughs. "He loved me."

The Lady, who's fond of performing in naughty underwear ensembles, chains and stripper heels, got her start playing Brooklyn parties and clubs in Manhattan in 2005 with her equally brazen backup dancers. "I put together a show in New York where we spun beats on vinyl and I played keyboards over the records," she says. "We wore matching bikinis," the Lady giggles, adding that the show was "yummy."

It remains to be seen whether of not the rest of America will find Lady GaGa's musical offerings as delicious as New York does. Her music sounds not unlike a drunken Madonna, Peaches and Kylie Minogue recording session with lots of sticky Champagne spilled on the demos. Lady GaGa's debut disc, made for the "rock and rollers who wanted to listen to pop records," drops this summer. The big Madonna fan's single, "Just Dance," hits next week.

Oh, and Interscope recently moved her into a Hollywood-adjacent apartment, so look out, Angelenos.

--  Post and photo by Charlie Amter