Lady Gaga Looks Back at Her Journey to Stardom, as Billboard Crowns Her 2015's Woman of the Year

“Extra's” AJ Calloway caught up with Lady Gaga at Billboard's 10th Annual Women in Music celebration in NYC, where Mother Monster was being honored as the 2015 Woman of the Year.

When AJ asked what the honor meant to Gaga, she could only think about her days as a young artist in Manhattan.

“All I can think about today is being in my apartment in New York when I was 19 years old… I was thinking all about how I started at the bottom and I had no one that believed in me. It was just me in my apartment with my piano alone on the Lower Eastside writing songs. All you have is your mind and an instrument and now we are here. It is pretty unbelievable when you think of how many things could have gone wrong or not happened at all.”

The singer is having a stellar year, nabbing Golden Globe and Grammy nominations in the same week. “I was really, really so happy to be nominated for a Golden Globe for my character The Countess for ['American Horror Story: Hotel'] and my Grammy nomination as well for 'Til it Happens to You' for best visual media, which I will be performing tonight.”