Stephanie Mills has called Lady Gaga a “culture vulture” and demanded an apology over a years-old encounter she says left her disrespected and unpaid.
Mills, 69, made the explosive accusation during an appearance this week on BET’s The Jason Lee Show, telling the host she was about to reveal something she had “never said before.” The “Home” singer then laid out a detailed complaint about a surprise performance she gave for Gaga at a New York fashion show, an event she says was arranged by a manager both artists shared at the time.
According to Mills, the manager informed her that “Born This Way” was Gaga’s favorite song and asked whether she would perform it as a surprise. Mills initially refused. “I said, ‘No, why would I do that,'” she recalled during the interview. Lee responded with a joke about icon status: “This is when you know you’re an icon when you have to be talked into singing for Lady Gaga.”
Mills eventually agreed to perform. Her account of Gaga’s reaction was withering. “She didn’t smile. She didn’t do anything,” Mills alleged. “She looked at me like I had two heads.”
The financial arrangement, Mills claimed, was equally troubling. She was not paid for the performance, she said, but was told there would be a “trade off” — the photographer shooting Gaga’s photoshoot would also do a fashion shoot with Mills. That promise evaporated, according to Mills, when Gaga’s team told her before she left that she needed to delete the pictures.
Lee pressed for the team’s explanation, but Mills appeared to pivot, connecting the episode to broader concerns about Gaga’s relationship with Black culture and management. “That’s why I say she’s a culture vulture, because she was managed correctly by Black men?” she asked rhetorically.
The “culture vulture” label landed hard. “You chose violence today,” Lee responded, visibly surprised. “This interview will go all the way left…”
Mills directed her closing remarks straight to camera, addressing Gaga personally. “I hope you watch, and I hope you remember what you did,” she said. “And I feel like you owe me an apology.”
The timing of Mills’ public call-out complicates any potential response. Gaga, 39, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, recently gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Rose Bean Polansky, with fiancé Michael Polansky. According to a birth certificate, the baby was born June 9 at 11:19 p.m. At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The name is believed to reference “La Vie En Rose,” which Gaga covered in her 2018 film A Star Is Born.
Gaga’s representatives have not publicly responded to Mills’ allegations.
