The Fame is the debut studio album by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008 through Interscope Records. After joining Kon Live Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different producers, primarily RedOne, Martin Kierszenbaum and Rob Fusari. Musically, The Fame is a dance-pop and synthpop album that has influences of pop music from the 1980s. Lyrically, the album visualizes Gaga's love of fame in general whilst also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs and sexual identity. Promotion was primarily through The Fame Ball Tour and multiple television appearances. The Fame was included as a bonus disc on the deluxe edition of the extended play, The Fame Monster (2009).

The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who commended the album's lyrical content and Gaga's musicianship and vocal ability, which have been compared to fellow pop singers such as Gwen Stefani. The album was a commercial success, topping the charts in different countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Switzerland. In the United States, it peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, while topping the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 100 non-consecutive weeks. The Fame has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒʌrməˈnɑːtə/ STE-fə-nee jurr-mə-NAH-tə; born March 28, 1986), known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was signed with Streamline Records by the end of 2007. During her employment as a songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.

Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with The Fame Monster (2009), which spawned the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". The album's success allowed her to embark on the eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her most recent album Born This Way (2011) topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international chart-topping singles, including "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory". Besides her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.

The Script are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Based in London after signing to Sony Label Group imprint Phonogenic, the band released their eponymous debut album in August 2008, featuring the hit songs "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" and "Breakeven". The album debuted at number one in Ireland and the UK. Their second album, Science & Faith, was released in September 2010, and contains the hit songs "For the First Time" and "Nothing". The album debuted at number one in Ireland and the UK, and number three on the US Billboard 200.

Their music has been featured in many video games and many popular television programs including 90210, Ghost Whisperer, The Hills, Waterloo Road, EastEnders, Made in Chelsea and The Vampire Diaries. Frontman Danny O'Donoghue is also a coach on The Voice UK.

Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan met in a club in The Liberties area of Dublin, Ireland near the Guinness brewery, gravitating to each other through a shared liking of music, and in particular a love of R & B music (Rhythm and Blues). "At that time, MTV only came on in Dublin after midnight, it was the fuzzy channel, and for my generation urban culture was just a wave through us all," explains Sheehan. "It wasn't about gangs and guns; it was fashion and fun, singing and dancing."

Diana "Wynter" Gordon (born August 25, 1985 in South Jamaica, Queens, New York) is an American pop/dance singer-songwriter. She began as a writer for other artists, later signing with Atlantic Records where she began working on an album while continuing to write songs for other acts and providing vocals on songs. Her debut With the Music I Die was released in 2011.

Gordon was born in Queens, New York City and was brought up in a poor and dangerous neighborhood in South Jamaica. She is the middle child of six, they lived in a two bedroom house. She recalled in an interview that many people she knew were deceased at a young age, because they "got into the wrong things". However, she refused to call her childhood difficult, she said that "if things were rough, I didn't feel it," explaining that the familiarity of the environment that she grew up in prevented her from objectively describing it. She attributed her well being to her strict mother who did not allow her to leave the yard and told her to go to the library after school. Her mother remarried when Gordon was 5, but Gordon did not have a close relationship with her step father. Her strict upbringing resulted in a strained relationship with her parents.

Kimberly Noel "Kim" Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, celebutante, television personality, model, actress and businesswoman. She is known for starring in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the E! reality series that she shares with her family, and its spin-offs including Kourtney and Kim Take New York.

Prior to the development of her career as a reality television star, Kardashian gained notoriety as the subject of a sex tape that subsequently resulted in a court awarding her $5 million. She has been involved in the production of several lines of clothing and fragrances. In 2010, she was the highest earning reality star, with estimated earnings of $6 million, and is one of the most highly documented and followed celebrities in the world in popular media.

In August 2011, Kardashian married basketball player Kris Humphries in a widely publicized ceremony. In October 2011, Kardashian filed for divorce, 72 days after the wedding.

Kardashian was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of attorney Robert Kardashian and his wife Kris Kardashian (née Houghton). Her father was a third generation Armenian American, and her mother is of Dutch and Scottish descent. Kardashian has two sisters, Kourtney and Khloé, and one brother, Robert. She has stepbrothers Burton Jenner, Brandon Jenner, and reality TV star Brody Jenner, step-sister Casey Jenner, and half-sisters Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner. She attended Marymount High School.