Lady Gaga’s Reign as the Meme Queen of Awards Shows Just Keeps Going. Here’s the History

This may be the first year that Lady Gaga is nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Ally in A Star Is Born at the 91st Academy Awards, but the Fame Monster performer has been an awards show star for nearly a decade already. From the Grammys to the Golden Globes — and even the Oscars themselves in years past — Gaga has always made an impression, whether from her outlandish red carpet looks, memorable interactions with other celebrities or striking moments in front of the camera.

Here are some of the most viral moments from Lady Gaga’s extensive awards show history, proving she has always been a meme queen.

2010 MTV VMAs: The infamous meat dress

Back when Gaga was still best known as a performance artist of sorts, specifically in the music scene, she made sure to show up to events with seriously eye-catching outfits. One that will forever live in infamy: her meat dress from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. (See: the reactions of her fellow celebrities as she strolled up to the stage in the carnivorous costume.) Few looks back on Lady Gaga’s fashion or fame are complete without a mention of the style that put her in the meme-worthy big leagues.

2011 Grammys: Her egg “birth” onstage

Lady Gaga told reporters she spent as long as 72 hours in this egg — or “vessel,” as she called it — before being “born” onstage at the 2011 Grammys, where she appropriately performed her hit “Born This Way.” The memorable parade of the egg across the red carpet, with Gaga herself encased in its confines while her assistants bore her across the carpet on a makeshift litter, became an internet sensation that year.

2015 Oscars: Her striking red gloves

Back at the 2015 Oscars, Lady Gaga wasn’t nominated for an award — but she was there to sing her Oscar-nominated song “Till It Happens to You,” and walked the red carpet in a classic white Azzedine Alaia dress. The eyebrow-raising, meme-worthy accessory? A pair of elbow-length red leather gloves. The internet quickly latched onto her unusual choice of embellishment, and created a tide of memes about them.

2016 Golden Globes: A brush with Leonardo DiCaprio

When Gaga went up to accept her Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for TV — in this case, for her role as The Countess in American Horror Story: Hotel — she happened to brush by Leonardo DiCaprio on her way to the stage. (He would go on to accept his first Oscar for his acting in The Revenant.) The footage captured, of a surprised, laughing DiCaprio flinching back from Gaga as she wove between tables, quickly became a viral moment.

2018 Venice Film Festival: A glamorous arrival

The Venice Film Festival isn’t quite an awards show, but for the premiere of A Star Is Born in August 2018, Lady Gaga made sure to arrive in unparalleled glamorous style: by old-school water taxi, perched daintily on the edge of the boat with a red rose in hand, her Old Hollywood hairstyle shellacked into perfect curls. It made quite an impression, with the images becoming memes — and kicked off her new era as a bona fide movie star.

2019 Golden Globes: A red carpet interview

At the Golden Globes, Lady Gaga graced the red carpet in a voluminous ice-blue gown that some fashion commentators suggested had something in common with a vintage Judy Garland look from 1954. (Garland also famously starred in an early version of A Star Is Born.) But when asked about the similarity by an ET red carpet reporter, Gaga kicked off a meme thanks to her baffled response. “You know what, I … We didn’t say that,” she said, seeming at a loss. “No, but it looks an awful lot like that, doesn’t it?” People felt bonded to her in that moment.

Gaga also inspired another “mini-meme” that evening when she responded to one of host Sandra Oh’s opening jokes. “It’s true!” she shouted from the audience, after Oh riffed on a line that Gaga has been heard regularly repeating during her A Star Is Born promo tour (“There can be 100 people in a room and 99 of those people won’t believe in you, but you just need one to believe in you”).

2019 Grammys: That “Shallow” freeze-frame

When Lady Gaga came to the stage to perform “Shallow” from A Star Is Born during the 2019 Grammys with Mark Ronson playing guitar beside her, she decided to get a little wild with a glittery rock ‘n’ roll take on the Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated song. Besides singing both Bradley Cooper and her own parts in the song, she also finished the performance off by boldly staring down into the cameras for an extended moment. Instant meme.