Queen of Pop
Lady Gaga has conquered the worlds of music, film, TV and fashion. Next up: champagne
Lady Gaga is taking her unique artistic vision into the world of wines
Trust Lady Gaga to take one of the world’s most decadent brands and make it even more glamorous. The American performer has paired up with champagne house Dom Pérignon for a collaboration that celebrates creativity and supports at-risk youth. As part of the campaign, Gaga appears in all her surreal glory in a conceptual video shot by visionary photographer and director Nick Knight. She’s dressed in two opulent regal robes—one, sharp and sculptural in scarlet and magenta, the other all frilly pleated ruffles of pink lamé—sashaying to a trippy remix of Free Woman from her 2020 album Chromatica. She poses with a bottle of Dom Pérignon and raises a flute of Rosé Vintage 2006.
As mesmerising as the singer herself is the centrepiece of this collaboration: a limited-edition, veil-like sculpture enveloping a bottle of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2006, a wine tempered by a slow maturation of almost 12 years in the cellar. Only 110 pieces—designed by Gaga in collaboration with longtime artistic partner Nicola Formichetti—will be sold, with proceeds benefiting her Born This Way Foundation.
Vincent Chaperon, Dom Pérignon’s current chef de cave, explains why the champagne house wanted to work with the pop star.
“Lady Gaga is so committed and engaged in whatever she does,” Chaperon says on a video call. “Gaga is a woman like Madame de Pompadour, resonating in the world with her constant reinvention, inspiring people to create, to be free to build and elevate.”
Gaga has long been a fan of the brand. “There’s so much that goes into the creation of this champagne in such a methodical and thoughtful way, it’s not dissimilar to how I make music,” Gaga says during our Zoom conversation. “For me, Dom Pérignon’s story is about creative freedom, about dedicating yourself to your craft and never giving up on your vision. I believe very strongly in these things, so it was clear that Dom Pérignon and I had a similar vision and understanding of creativity.”
Gaga was particularly interested to learn that the brand’s namesake, Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Pérignon, lent the house not only his name, but his ideals. The motto of the Benedictine Order is
(“pray and work”), a maxim that underlies the spiritual elevation and profound purpose that can come with a Zen-like dedication to one’s craft.
Gaga subscribes to similar beliefs, believing that adhering to an unwavering work ethic is necessary before relishing the joy of creative freedom. “Creative freedom is something that you have to earn, in a way; you have to work at it. It has to be a discipline in something that you practise,” she says. “Creative freedom blossoms when we share our creativity with others. Otherwise we start to create in a vacuum.”
The musician described director Knight as a force of nature, and embraced his vision for Dom Pérignon’s future as a “Queendom”, something that reflects the brand’s evolution. “This idea of Queendom was something that we all came up with together,” says Gaga. “For me, it was a response to those who used to say that Dom Pérignon is the champagne of kings, and I said, ‘Well, next year it’s going to be the champagne of queens.’ I am all about dismantling systems that do not serve us, systems that caused suffering. The patriarchy gave birth to the idea that the kingdom was the greatest ‘dom’ of all. So here we declare the Queendom.”
Gaga’s collaboration with Dom Pérignon is an empowering reflection of the importance of working together, and of the values they share. “What is true freedom, true liberation to me, I believe, would be when humanity finds a new gravity of love—when we learn to live in a way that we have not lived yet,” she says.