by Melanie Linn Gutowski

Lady Gaga is, perhaps, the most controversial pop star in the history of Western music. Everywhere she goes, it seems, she inspires an extreme reaction. She's been called everything from "poison for the minds of our kids" (Fox News) to "Most Influential Person" (Time Magazine) and "a cultural and spiritual leader" (Oprah Winfrey).

But she calls herself her Aunt Joanne's "unfinished business."

The singer told Vanity Fair this month that she believes she spiritually inherited her creativity from her aunt, Joanne Germanotta, who died at the young age of 19.

"When my mother was engaged to my father, they were staying in his house, where he grew up, and a light came into the room and touched her stomach and went away," Gaga says.

"[My mother] believes that Joanne came into the room and sort of OK'd her for my dad, and that Joanne transferred her spirit into my mom. So, when I was born, it's almost as if [I was] her unfinished business."

Indeed, the singer was named for her Aunt Joanne - her given name is Stefanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

Though she never knew her Aunt Joanne, Gaga seems to admire her from the beyond.

"She was a poet and a real Renaissance woman, pure of heart - just a beautiful person."

Melanie Linn Gutowski is a proud Godmother and ABC.

Photo: StarPulse.com
Published: August 11, 2010