Lady Starlight

Lady Starlight (born Colleen Martin; December 23, 1975) is an American Rock DJ, performance artist, writer, go-go dancer and fashion stylist based in New York City's Lower East Side. Perhaps best known for being Grammy nominated pop star Lady Gaga's original creative partner and DJ. In 2008, Lady Starlight was voted "Best Female Hard Rock DJ 2008" by The L Magazine.
Biography
1975-2001: Early life and education
Colleen Martin was raised in upstate New York. She was a founding member of the art rock band Brown Cuts Neighbors. After gaining a degree in philosophy at college, she moved to New York City in 2001 where she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T) and worked as a MAC PRO make-up artist for MAC Cosmetics.
2002-present: Career
Martin, a rock history aficionada, adopted the stage name Lady Starlight as a reference to the song "Lady Starlight" by Sweet.
A downtown nightlife personality and scene queen, Lady Starlight has produced several long running parties in the Lower East Side club scene. From 2004-2006, Lady Starlight paid tribute to widely noted 1970s Los Angeles glam rock nightclub Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco with her own glitter rock inspired party, "Lady Starlight's English Disco" , where Broadway star Annaleigh Ashford made her performance debut, dancing under the stage name Hollywood Starr. Lady Starlight also appeared in NYC DJ/electronica musician Ursula 1000's 2006 music video for the glam rock inspired song, "Hello! Let's Go To a Disco" off his album, "Here Comes Tomorrow". In 2007, she started "Lady Starlight's Heavy Metal Soundhouse", a homage to rock DJ Neal Kay's "Heavy Metal Soundhouse", London’s first heavy rock disco.
In a 2005 interview, when asked where she sees herself in 10 years, Lady Starlight said "Making clothes for my friends who will be famous and
maybe a chapter in one of their biographies". She also became a contributing writer for Classic Rock Magazine.
2007-present: Lady Gaga
In early 2007, Lady Starlight began collaborating with the similarly named and as yet undiscovered pop star Lady Gaga, and helped create her onstage fashions. The pair began playing gigs at downtown club venues like Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and Rockwood Music Hall, with their live performance art piece, "Lady Gaga and The Starlight Revue". Billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque RockShow", their act was a low-fi tribute to 1970s' variety acts.
Lady Gaga credits Lady Starlight for her interest in performance as art. "I actually never really thought of it until I started working with Lady Starlight" Lady Gaga said of her career beginnings. "One day she was like 'It’s not really a concert and it’s not really a show. It’s performance art. What you’re doing is not just singing…it’s art.' And once she pointed out to me what I was already doing I just started analyzing that more and researching to try to take it in a different direction. And that’s really what we did."
In August 2007, Lady Gaga and The Starlight Revue were invited to play at American music festival Lollapalooza, where the Ladies shocked audiences with their wild performance. in a series of short films for her YouTube Channel, "Lady GaGa's Pop Culture Parking Lot" which is based on the cult 1986 documentary film "Heavy Metal Parking Lot", and the surreal "Lady Starlight Transmissions".

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu