Lady Gaga, 'Just Dance' (Sessions)

AOL: Is there anyone else that you look at right now that inspires you?

LG: I will always have a very deep love for Amy Winehouse. Because of Amy, very strange girls like me go to prom with very good looking guys? I don't believe that what I do is very digestible, and somehow Amy was the flu for pop music. And everybody got a little bit of the flu and got over it, and fell in love with Amy Winehouse. And now, when more flu comes along, it's not so unbearable.

AOL: 'Just Dance' reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after five months. Were you watching the charts? How did you celebrate when it got to No.1?

LG: No, I didn't look at the charts. I'd go mental. I've just got my head down, working. And then they say, "Gaga." And I say, "Shhh, I'm working." "Gaga, Gaga, today you're No. 1." And it's like I've had my head down for a full year and I raised my head and then we were No. 1. And I cried. I cried pretty miserably in my room, on the phone with my mother, and she cried. Because really, I know I wear a lot of latex and have lavender hair, but I really do all of this just to make my mom and dad proud.

--Melinda Newman