Like so many of us, earlier this year, Lady Gaga found herself celebrating a very special moment over Zoom. She and her mother were toasting to an aspect of a collaboration that had been almost three years in the making, one that would see Born This Way, the foundation the pair launched in 2011, receive an extremely generous donation from Dom Pérignon, the iconic House that made the champagne in their raised glasses.
The amount has yet to be announced, because the contribution is currently being raised via a charity lottery run by prizeo.com, through which entrants could win an extraordinarily special, limited-edition sculpture – only 110 of them exist – which forms just one part of the epic, two-year partnership between Lady Gaga and Dom Pérignon, centred on an all-new, limited edition Rosé Vintage from 2006.
Dialling in from her home in the US, the megastar explained how the sculpture, which was designed by Gaga, her long-time creative collaborator and friend Nicola Formichetti, and Dom Pérignon, captures a moment in time. “It’s full of life and energy,” she tells GQ. “What I love about it is that it seems to have momentum and that is something that I wish very much for humanity, that we will have momentum through love.”
Referencing the wider campaign, including the show-stopping visuals by Nick Knight that were produced in partnership with House of Gaga, she continues: “I hope that the love we’ve shared in this collaboration is something that shines through when you watch the film that Nick has made, when you see the sculpture, if you drink the champagne, that you feel the love between us all. That was something that we cared about. I care about it in all of the collaborations that I do, I even became close with the people that work at MGM before I began my show in Vegas. I believe in family, I believe in relationships and I believe that culture should involve realness and authenticity. All of that was infused into this.”
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At the heart of the whole campaign is creative freedom, the shared value that prompted Dom Pérignon to reach out to Gaga in the first place. Why? “Her drive for reinvention, humanity, the fact that she’s the embodiment of creation and innovation herself,” says Dom Pérignon Chef de Cave Vincent Chaperon. “From there, we spent two years trying to understand each other, to share our universes, and we found so much mutual inspiration and connection.” Gaga says that time was needed. “I only decided to do this collaboration with Dom Pérignon when we met each other and started to build an artistic family,” she says. “I don’t claim to be an expert in champagne, but I am an expert, I think, in people. They are wonderful people and we’ve worked well together. I think creative freedom is something we’ve enjoyed exploring and it’s created a lot of love and a lot of alchemy between us.”
Risk-taking is central to both parties’ creative drive, a radicality that Chaperon makes clear is not about aggressiveness, “but having the courage to explore the unknown, to go beyond your territory without losing ‘you’”. As the queen of reinvention and radicality, but one who always leads with kindness and community, Gaga is the perfect embodiment of the Dom Pérignon ethos. The house chose rosé specifically as the focus of her campaign because, Chaperon explains, “It encapsulates this idea of pushing boundaries, as it is the hardest of all of our wines to produce.”
The incredible film and images, shot by Knight, who Gaga calls “a seer”(“I really believe that he sees the future through his process”), are as alluring, majestic and fantastical as you’d expect. As Gaga puts it, “There is a very powerful, explosive nature to the Dom Pérignon rosé and I was very excited to create a campaign that was extremely bold, mesmerising and embodied artistry and a beautiful story in the same way this particular champagne does.”
Inspired by the house’s founder and namesake, a Benedictine monk who actually invented champagne in 1697, dedicating his life to creating the best wine in the world, Gaga’s creative team based the campaign around the idea of “Queendom”. “They used to say that Dom Pérignon was the champagne of kings. I, of course, had a retching reaction to the patriarchy of that. I said, ‘Well then, this champagne most certainly belongs to Queens, too, so maybe this is the year to recognise that.’”
We liked the idea of empowering women as well, or celebrating anyone that would identify with a Queendom, which includes everyone. Whenever possible, if I see a capable moment to dismantle something I believe is not serving humanity, not just the patriarchy, I will put it into the work.”
It’s this willingness to ruffle feathers, to take risks and to centre inclusivity that has made Gaga such a beloved cultural powerhouse, from using fashion and performance art to push the boundaries of public imagination, to her outspoken advocacy. What does she see as the biggest risk she’s ever taken? “In one way, I could answer that question simply and say my whole career was one big risk.”
Beyond the DP collaboration, 2021 has also seen the ten-year anniversary of Gaga’s game-changing second album, Born This Way, which she marked with a reissue featuring the original 14 tracks plus six covers by artists representing and advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community, from Kylie Minogue to Years & Years. Looking back on the past decade, is there an achievement she’s most proud of, either as an artist or an activist? “I’m very proud to have heard the stories of so many people around the world and [that I] decided to devote my life to the sharing of those stories. [I’m glad I was able to] meet people, hear their struggles and make that a part of my art,” she says. “Do I believe that art and activism are one in the same? Not always. I believe that art can possess a spirit of activism, but I believe that activism is a lifelong work and it’s one that I’m committed to every day. I’m committed to a lifetime of unlearning.”
Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary is, fundamentally, about harmony, a principle Chaperon says shapes Dom Pérignon’s vision, too: “This whole campaign is about being true to yourself while reinventing and, at the end of the day, being with people. Our vision is to build harmony in our wine, in our experiences, to enhance emotion. Champagne should be shared with others and is about celebration.” Similarly, Gaga says that the reissue was about “honouring more than my album, and really honouring people all over the world who stood up at once and said that they were born this way. That was the real artwork. That was the true music to me.”
Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2006 x Lady Gaga RSP £295 launching exclusively at Harrods from 1-29 October 2021 and available from wider stockists from 30 October 2021.
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