New album leaked, Lady Gaga hints at show from space

Lady Gaga is streaming her new album a week early after leaks, but she hinted Wednesday at an out-of-this-world publicity splash with its official launch -- a concert in space. The multi-platinum-selling pop diva's third album, "Artpop," went up without warning on iTunes after a trickle of leaks in recent days on the Internet. The first official release was Wednesday in Japan. 

But the rarely subtle singer gave fans another reason to wait for the album's official international launch on Sunday. Us Weekly magazine reported that Lady Gaga would become the first singer to perform in outer space. "Find out if the rumors are true. 11.10 LIVE from ARTPOP's album launch," she teased on Twitter. The magazine said that Lady Gaga plans a month of special vocal training to perform in early 2015 aboard the Virgin Galactic, the passenger spaceplane being launched by British billionaire Richard Branson to popularize space tourism.

Lady Gaga will perform one song on the spaceship during the Zero G Colony high-tech festival in New Mexico, the magazine said. In "Artpop," Lady Gaga returns to the danceable synthpop of her massively successful 2008 debut album "The Fame" after experimenting with other styles on her second album, "Born This Way." She had initially appealed to her fans to stop early leaks of the new album's first single, "Applause."

In an interview published in Britain's Daily Mail, Lady Gaga said that the album examined the relationship between music and pop culture, aiming for the opposite effect of iconic pop artist Andy Warhol. "The intention of the album was to put art culture into pop music, a reverse of Warhol. Instead of putting pop onto the canvas, we wanted to put the art onto the soup can," she said in the interview.

Last month, fellow pop singer Katy Perry similarly released her new album, "Prism," after leaks.