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Even in the OTT insanity that is Las Vegas, Lady GaGa stands out a mile. Dressed in a Thierry Mugler-inspired black rubber dress adorned with gold origami pyramids, stupendously long false eyelashes, crystal-encrusted sunglasses and impossibly high heels, she cuts quite a figure as she wanders past the agog gamblers. “This is just how I am all the time,” she shrugs, oblivious to the attention as she prepares to perform at the wonderfully ostentatious Mirage hotel. “You’ll never see me in flip-flops and a T-shirt.”

The surreal city is the perfect setting for a GaGa gig. The Italian-American singer is a perplexing, somewhat camp combination of brash, bright and slightly strange. “It’s the future of pop music,” she insists of tracks such as the excellent new single, Just Dance. Surrounded by four male dancers and brandishing a glow-in-the-dark disco stick, she gamely stagedives into her adoring audience, which tonight includes the R&B superstar Ne-Yo.

Having seen her perform in both Los Angeles and London earlier this year, I can say that her spirited showmanship isn’t reserved only for the bright lights of Sin City. She is just as enthralling at all of her shows, regardless of location. “Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show,” she says of her impressive stage set. “I don’t give a f*** about money. What am I going to do with a condo and a car? I can’t drive.”

In combining music, fashion, art and technology, Lady GaGa evokes Madonna when she was good, Gwen Stefani circa Hollaback Girl, Kylie 2001 or Grace Jones right now. “My art is my whole life,” she says of her “digital age”, multimedia approach to artistry. As well as touring with huge moveable screens that display myriad images, GaGa uploads self-made documentaries to MySpace: “I’ve taken something decidedly commercial and made it interesting.”

Her debut album, The Fame, is indeed just that. Written and co-produced by GaGa, it’s a fantastic mix of Bowie-esque ballads, dramatic, Queen-inspired midtempo numbers and synth-based dance tracks that poke fun at celebrity-chasing rich kids. It’s entertaining, incredibly witty and, above all, captivating.

“I’m defying all of the preconceptions we have of pop artists,” says the 22-year-old with a penchant for Chanel, Gareth Pugh and Marni. “I’m very into fashion — I channel Versace in everything I do. Donatella is my muse in so many ways: she’s iconic and powerful, yet people throw darts at her. She’s definitely provocative, and I channel that more so than anything else.”

There are a lot of other figures being “channelled”, though. Her stage name is a nod to Queen’s Radio Ga Ga, while her ideology is Warholian in essence. She works with a collective called the Haus of GaGa, who collaborate with their muse on clothing, stage sets and sounds. “In this industry, you get a lot of stylists and producers thrown at you, but this is my own creative team, modelled on Warhol’s Factory. Everyone is under 26 and we do everything together.” The point of her pop music, she adds, isn’t merely to entertain, but to provoke response and discussion. “How do I make pop, commercial art be taken as seriously as fine art? That’s what Warhol did,” she says, sipping a green tea an hour before show time. “How do I make music and performances that are thought-provoking, fresh and future? We decide what’s good and, if the ideas are powerful enough, we can convince the world that it’s great.”

GaGa’s success is far from overnight, but after she made a career out of songwriting for other acts, the buzz about her is starting to build. Currently No 5 in the Billboard Hot 100 with Just Dance, she is also the recent recipient of a Grammy nomination. In the UK, she has been tipped in the influential BBC Sound of 2009 poll. If all goes according to her pop masterplan, she is set to be a huge act next year. “I’m filling an enormous hole. There’s a wide-open space for a female with big balls to fill,” the classically trained pianist announces. “I’m here to make great music and inspire people.”

It’s not only GaGa herself and music- industry insiders who are excited. The influential American gossip blogger Perez Hilton predicts she will be “massive” in 2009: “She makes good music, it’s pop with substance. She’s the real deal, the total package.” Another fan is the fashion designer Henry Holland. “Her music is pure, brilliant pop, and I love the fact that she has such an iconic look,” he says. “It’s not very often that someone comes along and looks different and individual . . . I think that’s exciting and inspiring.”

GaGa is apparently already influencing other artists, with numerous blogs gleefully pointing out the similarity of Christina Aguilera’s styling, hair and make-up in recent months. “I’m not sure who this person is, to be honest,” Aguilera sniffed when asked whether she was a fan. “I don’t know if it is a man or a woman.” GaGa, for her part, is unbothered by the backbiting.

“I think she’s very talented and, anyway, look at me: I might as well be a gay man. When I hear comments like that, I’m like, ‘She’s dead on’, because she saw the Warhol in me. Of course it bears a resemblance, but nobody can copy me, because I can’t be copied.”

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