Lady Gaga tells Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy her immigrant heritage taught her the importance of hard work

Pop superstar and actress Lady Gaga has spoken of the importance of hard graft and kindness as the key to her success.

he 35-year-old Grammy and Oscar-winning star, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is the daughter of Italian American immigrants from New York, who shared her views on what drove her to her phenomenal success in a pre-recorded interview from London on tonight’s Late Late Show on RTÉ One.

“I really ground myself in the values of my family. I was taught to work hard so I can make a great life for my family and my ancestors in Italy worked harder so that my parents in America could have a better life. And my parents worked harder so that I could have a better life,” she said in an interview to promote her latest film House of Gucci with Jared Leto and Adam Driver.

“Even in the spirit of talking about House of Gucci, the film that I am in, and a movie about an Italian family I can’t tell you how much that informed me. In terms of everyday thinking, I am standing on that soil that my family worked so hard on so that I could be here so that I could live this better life,” she said.

She added that kindness is just as important as hard work.

“I think the most perfect system is kindness. It goes both ways, and it doesn’t make anything go wrong. There is nothing bad there, it’s always good there as long as it’s honest. And I think that people that are coming over from other countries are doing good hard honest work, and it’s elbow grease and it’s sweat and tears and it’s heart. And heart matters…

"And I think the same is true, yes, we are Irish Americans and for immigrants all over the world and I think it is something we should have respect for."

She also revealed how she was deeply honoured when legendary Italian-American crooner Tony Bennett, (95), who has Alzheimer’s, name checked her during his final performance with her at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in August.

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“His last show when he saw me, he said ‘Lady Gaga’ and he hasn’t called me Lady Gaga in years and he remembered me for his last show and that is something that I will never forget,” she said, adding that singing with him had been one of her greatest honours.

“To sing with the legend for 10 years I think any artist would be so lucky and I know that this was an education in jazz music,” Gaga said.

"When you talked about the currency of kindness, let me tell you something, in terms of the currency of kindness, Tony Bennett built an economy.

"The man used to march with Martin Luther King Junior he used to sneak Duke Ellington in the back of hotels to play jazz all night during segregation. This is a human being, that believed in moving society forward, moving humanity forward. His passion for civil rights and black music through jazz is something that I can’t tell you - being even in close proximity to is like standing next to a galaxy. Even with Alzheimer's, he is a genius.”