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Billboard names Lady Gaga Woman of the Year for 10th annual Women in Music ceremony

Billboard will honor Lady Gaga at the publication’s 10th annual Women in Music event, which will be aired on national TV for the first time. The Grammy winner will receive the 2015 Woman of the Year award, which honors a “key influential figure who drove the conversation for that year,” according to Janice Min, the president of the publication’s holding company Guggenheim Media.

The award has previously been given to Taylor Swift, P!nk, and Katy Perry. Lifetime will air the 10th annual ceremony on December 18.

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“We’re delighted to partner with Billboard on this special event, bringing it to a mass audience for the first time ever,” said Lifetime EVP Liz Gateley in a statement. “Lady Gaga is an extraordinary artist, emblematic of the strength, courage and fortitude that Lifetime celebrates, and we are thrilled to offer our platform to recognize her in every way she deserves.”

Gaga, now 29, is coming off of career-changing year. She spent much of this year touring alongside 2014’s Cheek to Cheek, a collaboration of jazz standards with Tony Bennett. Next month, she begins a run starring as a wealthy hotel owner on American Horror Story: Hotel. The pop star, whose fifth studio album is expected to come out next year, recently told Entertainment Weekly that her experience on the show will “inform” her new music.

Speaking about Gaga’s many talents, Min said that no other woman has such an influence on pop culture. “From her show-stopping performance at the Oscars, to her co-headlining tour, to her philanthropic outreach and foundation promoting youth wellbeing and empowerment, to her new role as TV star, there is no woman dominating popular culture tastes and its evolution as much as she is today. What a force.”

The awards ceremony will be hosted at the Cipriani Midtown on December 11 in New York.

Chris Leo Palermino
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
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