Lady GaGa

Phenomenal doesn't even come close. When Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta announced her arrival with 2008 debut single "Just Dance" she seemed to be just another lively addition to an already over-populated dance-pop scene, but soon enough her master plan would come into sharp focus. Here was an artist who wasn't content to simply wow the world with killer hooks, cabaret authenticity and out-there fashion — she was going to re-write the rules of pop, of entertainment — as the mutant heir to a diva-leftfield lineage that traces its bloodline through Madonna, Cher and Bette Midler. She was the freak-like-me starlet who championed the outsider ("Born This Way") and celebrated the overblown ("Bad Romance"). These introductory Gaga tracks take you to the heart of her whirlwind, from must-have move-buster "Poker Face" and twisted electro-ballad "Paparazzi" to Beyoncé collaboration "Telephone" and camp-epic 2011 single "Judas". The only question we can possibly ask is "what next?" . . . and whatever she delivers, the world will be listening.