Lady Gaga plans 'The Fame' follow-up for early 2011 release

(AFP PHOTO FRED DUFOUR)

Pop icon Lady Gaga is planning an early 2011 release for the follow-up to her internationally chart-topping album The Fame, according to an interview in US magazine Rolling Stone on newsstands June 23.

Lady Gaga plans to announce the title of the new album at midnight on New Year's Eve, she told Rolling Stone. "I've been working on it for months now, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now."

She also revealed that fans could expect a different type of music on the new album, saying that her subject matter had shifted from fame to politics. "The message of the new music is now more bitter than it was before."

The forthcoming album will be Lady Gaga's follow-up to her top-selling 2008 debut album The Fame. In November 2009 she released The Fame Monster - a re-release of The Fame featuring eight new songs including "Telephone," "Bad Romance," and "Alejandro." The two releases have together sold well over ten million copies worldwide.