Lady Gaga honours late aunt with album title

Pop superstar Lady Gaga has named her new album Joanne in tribute to her late aunt.

The Born This Way hitmaker, real name Stefani Germanotta, never met her father Joe's sister, as she died of lupus in 1974 at the age of 19.

However, her memory has lived on in the Germanotta family - Gaga bears her aunt's moniker as a middle name, while her dad also decided to name their Italian restaurant in New York Joanne Trattoria.

Now the singer has chosen to celebrate the life of her dead relative once more by naming her forthcoming project in her honour, revealing her short life has always been a source of inspiration for the musician.

She shared the news during an interview with Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe on Thursday (15Sep16), when she declared the title track is "the true heart and soul of the record".

She added of the album, "As I returned to my home life and spending time with my friends and family and getting out of the mainstream limelight for a minute, (it's) the experiences of our family and our challenges that make us who we are."

"It's everything about Joanne... it's all the toughness of the pain of losing her that made us all strong and made us who we are," Gaga continued. "She is the woman of my past who is becoming and helping me bring more of my honest woman self into the future."

The 30-year-old went on to admit she and superproducer Mark Ronson are currently putting the finishing touches to the album, the follow-up to 2013's Artpop, which is set for release on 21 October (16).

"(It's) actually going to be done in the next 48 hours," she said.

The album update emerged less than a week after Gaga released Perfect Illusion, the first single from her new album, and on Thursday, the pop icon promised fans a music video, directed by Ruth Hogben, is on its way.