Receiving the award from her 'Cheek to Cheek' collaborator Tony Bennett, the Mother Monster says during her speech that she feels 'extremely unaccomplished as a songwriter.'
- Jun 20, 2015
AceShowbiz - Lady GaGa was among the honorees at the Songwriters Hall of Fame 46th Annual Induction and Awards gala. The singer took home the first-ever Contemporary Icon Award at the event taking place on Thursday night, June 18 in New York City.
Linda Perry performed a slowed down rendition of GaGa's "Bad Romance" before the latter received her prize from her "Cheek to Cheek" collaborator Tony Bennett. In her emotional acceptance speech, the Mother Monster revealed, "I was thinking while I was sitting there, and my mom was handing me napkins ... if they only knew how many bad songs I wrote before that good one."
"I feel that I have a lot of work to do, as personally, I feel extremely unaccomplished as a songwriter," she continued. "As my heroes have done some things that I can only dream of, I feel very in my infancy as a writer, and I think you for just ... at this point in my career, I've had some ups, I've had some downs, I've had some in-betweens - that you've chosen to honor me for the only thing I know I have, which is my heartbeat, which is that I write songs."
She went on to thank Bennett and Perry, "I'm so grateful because [Tony is] always looking out for me. And I'm very honored that he was here tonight to present this award to me. And I'm very honored that Linda Perry was here, and I consider them to be true and two huge influences in my life that I hope anyone that's here that a true dream has been made come true because these artists supported another artist, and I'm very grateful that I'm here."
Also honored at the Thursday event were inductees Perry, country star Toby Keith and Cyndi Lauper among others. GaGa paid tribute to Perry by performing a cover of 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?". She told the crowd about how the song influenced her life, "The song I just performed changed my life a million times over - over and over again, not just once in my life. But many times ago when I revisit it. Isn't that what a f**king hit song is supposed to do!?"
As for Keith, he was honored by Stephen Colbert who covered "As Good as I Once Was". The TV host, whose appearance at the gala was unexpected, donned a black cowboy hat and a denim jacket while showing off his twang alongside a full band. He also delivered a speech honoring Keith's accomplishments.
