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RedOne

Nadir Khayat (born 9 April 1972), better known by his stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan-Swedish singer, songwriter, record producer and record executive. RedOne has been nominated for ten Grammy Awards, winning three, all of them regarding his work with Lady Gaga.

Work with Lady Gaga

In 2007, RedOne decided to move to Jersey City, New Jersey with his wife for better career opportunities, believing this to be his "now or never opportunity". That same year, Alan Melina and Laurent Besencon, of New Heights Entertainment, the management company for Lady Gaga and RedOne at that time, were introduced to each other.

At that time, I just did my first hit with Kat DeLuna called “Whine Up.” [2007] After that hit, I told my management that I wanted to work with established artists. But they called me and said, “Hey, we [want you to work with] this girl…. She’s talented if you want to meet her for five minutes.”…. I met her outside of the Sony building in New York, and I liked the vibe I was getting! She was like, “Oh my God, I love ‘Whine Up!’” [Laughs]. In those five minutes, I felt like she was so special. And those five minutes turned into a few sessions.

We were talking about rock like Mötley Crüe, you know, “Girls, girls, girls!” but we needed “Boys, boys, boys!” instead…and that created the sounds for the whole album. For “Just Dance,” I wanted to do a rock song with big drums but instead of guitars, it’s synths. That’s what “Just Dance” is! The opening [synths] are like a guitar chord…. [I began] taking her to every session I had with other artists, too, but as a writer. And every artist got scared of her and asked me to not bring her again. I remember telling her, “Gaga, you’re an incredible artist and they feel your energy!” She was so creative, giving them ideas about how to dress and how to behave, and they started feeling so small. And Gaga started crying, like, “I just want to help them!” I said, “Yes, but keep those ideas for yourself. You’re an incredible artist.”In one of those sessions, I presented her to an [industry friend] named Efe [One-Feme Ogbeni], and the first time I played her music he was like, “Oh my God, this girl is the next Madonna!”

—RedOne, Entertainment Weekly (April 2018)[1]

Their first meeting happened after Island Def Jam dropped Gaga, RedOne continued to work with Gaga for free because he believed in her. From 2007-8, they both worked on songs for other artists such as Esmée Denters (unreleased due to label politics), New Kids on the Block for their first album in fourteen years and Tami Chynn (unreleased album). In 2007, RedOne met with Akon through working together with Kat DeLuna as producers for "RedOne/Konvict" in 2008.

Red began working with Akon, who had an artist named Tami Chynn who needed songs for her album. So Akon & RedOne flew Lady Gaga and I both out to LA to write songs for Tami. it was my first time meeting and working with Akon. the first songs Lady Gaga, Tami Chynn and I wrote together at Record Plant Studios was “Hypnotico”. from that trip, Akon met, signed and helped launch Lady Gaga’s career.

—Claude Kelly[2] (November 26, 2011)


Following the release of The Fame in 2008, the duo continued to work and release songs together on every album up to Joanne (2016).

Productions with Lady Gaga

He worked with Lady Gaga on the following song(s):

Songs from The Fame (2008):

Songs from The Fame Monster (2009):

Songs from Born This Way (2011):

Songs from ARTPOP  (2013):

Songs from Joanne  (2016):

Songs from other projects:

Songs currently unreleased:

  • Seven unnamed songs (2014-16)

Songs written for other artists:

Other

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