Origins
The Certainty
QLet’s start at the beginning not with Lady Gaga, not with the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but with the girl who decided music was everything. Where did that certainty come from, and was there ever a moment where you doubted it?
The certainty did not arrive all at once. It was built, layer by layer, through experiences that each added something permanent to who I was becoming. It started with my childhood babysitter, Rosetta Attkins, who was truly like a second mother to me. She was a gospel singer from the south, and she taught me how to sing before I even understood what singing really was. She would play gospel radio constantly and have me imitate every voice I heard, men and women alike. By the time I was six or seven years old I had developed real vocal technique, and I began writing songs on the piano.
The moment that sealed everything was a night I will never forget for as long as I live. I was a teenager when Maceo Parker, the legendary saxophone player who performed alongside James Brown for decades, pulled me up on stage during one of his concerts completely out of nowhere. I had no idea it was coming. And I scatted up there with him in front of a full audience at a sold out show for twenty minutes. When it was over, his bassist got down on one knee, took a string right off his own bass guitar, coiled it around my ring finger like a ring, hushed the entire crowd, and said into the microphone: “Wendy, you have a gift from God. You must devote your life to using this gift or else you will deprive the world of something so special. From this day forward, you are married to music.”
The chills that ran through me were unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was written up in the newspapers the next day. And standing there in front of that audience, I made an unshakeable decision that has guided every single choice I have made since. As for doubt, I will tell you this honestly: I never doubted the music. There were moments I doubted the industry, moments I questioned the timing of things, moments I wondered whether the right doors would ever open. But the music itself, the certainty that this was my purpose, that was never something I doubted because it was always my north star.
The Night She Knew
QIn 2006 you were at a show in New York when you spotted a 19-year-old performing as Stefani Germanotta, who we now know as Lady Gaga. Something made you stop. What exactly did you see in her in that room that night, and how quickly did you know it was something genuinely rare?
I knew within minutes. I had spent eight months attending roughly sixty live shows searching for a very specific kind of artist someone who was the female equivalent of the lead singer of The Strokes. Edgy, bold, magnetic, someone you physically could not take your eyes off of. I had seen a great deal of talent over those eight months, but nothing that made me feel what I felt the night I walked into that room and encountered Lady Gaga.
It was not just her voice, though her voice was extraordinary. It was her stage presence. It was the way she did not merely perform songs but constructed an entire world on that stage and invited every single person in the room into it. It was her work ethic, which was almost startling in someone so young, and an authenticity that radiated from her in a way that simply cannot be manufactured or taught.
I called my production partner from outside that venue and told him I had found her. The certainty I felt in that moment was the same kind of certainty I had felt the night Maceo Parker’s bassist put that string around my finger. It was not a thought. It was certainty.
Building an Icon
QYou didn’t just discover Lady Gaga you developed her. You wrote songs together, helped build her brand and marketing strategy, and collaborated with her and a multi-platinum producer whose credits included Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, and Britney Spears. What does ‘developing’ an artist actually mean in practice? What does that process look like day to day?
Developing an artist is one of the most intimate and demanding creative relationships that exists, because you are not simply helping someone refine what they already have. You are helping them excavate who they truly are and then building the architecture around that truth so the world can receive it.
In practice, it means spending long hours in the studio writing and rewriting until the songs are not just good but undeniable. It means having honest conversations about image, about story, about the specific void in the cultural landscape that this particular artist is uniquely positioned to fill. It means collaborating directly with the artists and also connecting them with the right collaborators at precisely the right moment, which is as much about timing and relationships as it is about talent. It means thinking simultaneously about the art and the strategy, never allowing one to undermine the other.
With Stefani, it meant writing together, helping her develop a sound and an identity that were authentically hers while also being commercially powerful, and then defining a production sensibility that was exactly what was needed to translate her vision into something the industry could not ignore. Development is not a single moment. It is a sustained act of belief expressed through daily, unglamorous, deeply rewarding work.
QThe Fame became Billboard’s Album of the Decade. When you look at what Lady Gaga became 16 Grammys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes, global icon status what do you feel? Pride, nostalgia, something more complicated? How do you hold that chapter of your life?
What I feel most is an enormous sense of gratitude and a deep, quiet pride. Gratitude that I had the vision to recognize what Stefani was before the world had any frame of reference for her as Lady Gaga, and pride that the work we did together in those early years helped lay a foundation for something that became genuinely historic.
I know what I brought to that story. I know the role that early development and belief and connection played in everything that followed. And I hold that with clarity and with dignity. What Lady Gaga became is a testament to her extraordinary talent, her relentless work ethic, and her singular vision. It is also a testament to what is possible when someone who genuinely sees you gives you the tools and the platform to show the world what you are made of. I am proud to have been that person for her.
What Lady Gaga became is a testament to her extraordinary talent, her relentless work ethic, and her singular vision.
Wendy Starland, the Artist
QYou were named in the Beckhamhouse Book as one of the great female singers alongside Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Etta James, and Natalie Cole. You’ve released music on Universal, been featured on Moby’s Grammy-nominated album Last Night, and licensed over 100 songs to NBC, ABC, MTV, CBS, FOX, and E!. Yet most people’s first sentence about you is ‘the woman who discovered Lady Gaga.’ How do you feel about that, and how do you make sure Wendy Starland the artist gets seen alongside Wendy Starland who discovers talent?
I have no issues whatsoever about being acknowledged as having discovered and developed one of the biggest artists of all time. It was a huge labor of love that was more successful than I ever could have dreamt.
In terms of my own artist career, being named alongside Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Etta James, and Natalie Cole as one of the great female singers is one of the most humbling recognitions of my life. Having my music on Grammy-nominated albums, having over a hundred songs placed across the most powerful broadcast platforms in the world, building a body of work that spans decades and genres, those things represent a creative life that I am deeply proud of.
And yet I understand why the Lady Gaga discovery is the headline. It is the kind of story that captures the imagination because it is about the moment before greatness is known, about the rare ability to see something the world has not yet seen. What I have come to understand is that the two are not in competition. Wendy Starland the artist and Wendy Starland who discovered and developed Lady Gaga are not two separate people. They are both expressions of the same fundamental truth, which is that I have devoted my entire life to recognizing and serving greatness, whether that greatness lives inside my own work or inside someone else’s. MusicSoul is perhaps the fullest expression of both at once, because it is simultaneously a creative vision and a platform for other artists to be seen, heard, and fairly compensated. That is how I carry all of it forward together.
A Different Kind of Business
QGive Back Entertainment your philanthropic record label and marketing platform with worldwide distribution through Universal/INgrooves is a genuinely unusual idea: a label built around giving back. What was the moment that made you decide that the music industry needed a different kind of business model, and what have you learned from building one?
The moment came from accumulation rather than a single revelation. After years of navigating an industry that so frequently prioritizes profit over people, that treats artists as commodities and gives them a fraction of what their work is worth, I reached a point where I simply could not accept that the existing model was the only possible model.
I knew there had to be a way to build something that served both the art and made an impact on the world simultaneously. Give Back Entertainment was born from the belief that music is one of the most powerful forces for positive change that exists, and that a record label should be a vehicle for that change.
What I have learned from building it is that purpose-driven business is not just ethically right, it is strategically sound. Artists want to be part of something that has meaning and purpose. Audiences want to connect with music that stands for something beyond entertainment. When you align those forces, when the art and the mission and the business model are all pointing in the same direction, something genuinely extraordinary becomes possible. That learning has informed every aspect of what we are now building with MusicSoul.
QYou are now Co-Founder and President of MusicSoul described as a music streaming ecosystem and marketplace that flips the current model on its head. What is broken about the current streaming model that MusicSoul is designed to fix, and what does ‘flipping it’ actually look like in practice?
What is broken is fundamental and it is profound. The current streaming model was not designed with the artist at its center. It was designed around volume, around listener numbers and algorithmic engagement, in a system where an artist can generate millions of streams and still not earn enough to sustain a creative career. A fraction of a penny per stream is not compensation. It is an insult to the level of talent, sacrifice, and dedication that goes into creating music that moves people.
MusicSoul was built to correct that at the structural level. We give artists seventy percent of both streaming and advertising revenues, which is a radical departure from anything that currently exists in the mainstream landscape. We use AI to intelligently connect brands with artists by driving curated, data-driven mass promotion to them in a way that creates real revenue opportunities without compromising artistic integrity. We reward fans for sharing and engaging with music they love, turning passive listeners into active participants in an artist’s success, while also receiving compensation for their own engagement. We integrate charitable causes and social impact into the platform because we believe music and purpose belong together.
Flipping the model means putting the creator at the center of every single decision, every revenue structure, every technological development, and asking at every step whether this serves the artist. That question changes everything.
“A fraction of a penny per stream is not compensation. It is an insult to the level of talent, sacrifice, and dedication that goes into creating music that moves people.”
One Continuous Conversation
QYou’ve been inducted into the United Nations Council of Global Change, performed at Cannes, opened for Sheryl Crow and Jack White, appeared on a hit French television show, Les Anges, reaching 700,000 viewers per episode, and spoken at Berklee College of Music. What does a career that crosses all of those worlds feel like from the inside? Is there a through-line that connects it all, or does each chapter feel like a new life?
From the inside, it feels like one continuous conversation with the world conducted through different languages. The through-line is always the same: a profound belief in the transformative power of music and creativity, and an unwavering commitment to using whatever platform I have to elevate others.
Whether I am performing at Cannes or speaking at Berklee or being inducted at the United Nations, I am always asking the same fundamental questions. How do we make the world better? How do we give artists the recognition and compensation they deserve? How do we use culture as a vehicle for genuine human connection and positive change?
The contexts shift and the audiences change, but the mission never does. I do not experience my career as a series of separate chapters. I experience it as a single, still-unfolding story about what becomes possible when you refuse to be defined by any single room.
QYou’ve written and recorded with Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, the Black Eyed Peas, Billy Ray Cyrus, American Idol winner Maddie Poppe, and co-written and produced sixteen songs for Rock Band 3 alongside the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. Across all of that range, what is the one collaboration that surprised you the most the one you didn’t expect to feel the way it did?
Every collaboration surprises you in its own way, because every creative relationship reveals something about the music that you could not have arrived at alone. But if I am being completely honest, the collaborations that have moved me most unexpectedly are always the ones where the artistic distance between the two people seems, on the surface, to be the greatest.
When you sit down with someone whose entire creative world is different from yours and you discover that underneath all of the genre and style and background there is a shared emotional truth, a shared hunger to say something real, that is when the music that gets made is unlike anything either person could have created independently. Those moments remind me of what I have always believed, which is that great music is not about genre or category or industry positioning. It is about two human beings in a room deciding to be completely honest with each other through sound.
The Breadth Is the Point
QMusic, tech, philanthropy, fashion, television, visual art, modeling you operate across more creative territories than almost anyone in the industry. How do you avoid spreading yourself too thin? Or is the breadth the point?
The breadth is absolutely the point, but only because everything I do is related and rooted in the same deep commitment. I genuinely believe that the most powerful and lasting cultural impact comes from people who refuse to be confined to a single medium. My visual art informs my music. My work in technology is driven by the same values that animate my philanthropy. My experience as a performer on a stage makes me a more effective communicator in a boardroom. None of these things are separate from each other.
The risk of spreading yourself too thin is real, but the antidote to that risk is not narrowing your focus. It is deepening your purpose. When everything you do is anchored in the same clear and uncompromising why, the breadth becomes a source of strength rather than a source of dilution.
QWhat is the most important thing you have learned about the music industry that you wish you had known at the very beginning? And what advice would you give to a 19-year-old walking into a room today with everything to prove?
The most important thing I have learned is that the industry will never love you the way your art loves you. The industry is a business, and it will always be a business, and the sooner you understand that and make peace with it, the sooner you can stop waiting for the industry to validate what you already know to be true about yourself and start building the infrastructure that allows you to operate from a position of genuine power.
What I wish I had understood earlier is that your independence is your greatest asset. The artists who have the most enduring careers are the ones who figured out how to own their story, their masters, their relationships with their audience, and their revenue streams, without giving any of that away in exchange for a short-term opportunity.
To the 19-year-old walking into that room today with everything to prove, I would say this: do not chase trends, chase originality. Do not shrink yourself to fit someone else’s idea of what you should be. Learn the business as rigorously as you learn your craft, because talent without strategy is a gift that never fully reaches the world. Build your team carefully and protect your vision ferociously. And above all, remember that the people in that room are not gatekeepers of your destiny. They are potential collaborators on a story that only you can tell.
The Next Chapter
QAs someone who has built a presence across so many platforms your social media, television, tech ventures, and now MusicSoul how intentional are you about your digital identity? Is your online presence something you manage strategically, or is there room to elevate and unify it further as you step into this next chapter?
I am deeply intentional about everything I put into the world, including my digital presence, because I believe that how you show up in every space is a reflection of your values and your vision. That said, I think any honest person who has built across as many territories as I have will tell you that the digital landscape moves faster than any individual can fully keep pace with, and there are always opportunities to elevate and unify further.
As I step into this next chapter with MusicSoul, I am thinking very deliberately about how all of the threads of my public identity the artist, the developer of talent, the entrepreneur, the philanthropist, the visual creator come together into a single coherent and powerful narrative. Because the truth is that they have always been one story. MusicSoul is the platform that brings all of it together, and the digital presence I am building around it is designed to reflect not just what I have done but what I am building toward and why it matters for artists everywhere.
QIs there anything else you would love to share with our readers a belief, a vision, a personal story, or something about where you’re going next that we haven’t had the chance to explore?
What I would most want your readers to understand is that everything I have built and everything I am building is rooted in a single, unwavering belief: that artists are among the most important people in any civilization, and that the way we treat them is a direct reflection of what we value as a society. Music has the power to heal, to unite, to give language to experiences that resist every other form of expression. And yet the people who create that music have historically been compensated the least and protected the least by the very industry that profits from their gifts.
MusicSoul is my answer to that injustice. It is the fullest expression of everything I have learned across decades of creating, discovering, developing, and advocating for artists. But beyond the platform, beyond the business model, beyond all of the accolades and the chapters and the collaborations, what I hope people take from my story is something very simple. You do not have to choose between your artistry and your impact. You do not have to choose between building a career and building a better world. When you are clear enough about your purpose and courageous enough to pursue it without apology, those things are not in conflict. They are the same thing. That is the life I have tried to live, and it is the legacy I intend to leave.
