Lady Gaga ‘Applause’ Debut on ‘GMA’: ‘Total Dream Come True’

Lady Gaga, the iconic music super star, is back in action, dancing for the first time since her hip surgery in February.

In an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” this morning, ahead of the world premiere of her brand new music video, “Applause,” which debuted outside the “GMA” studios in Times Square, the “Mother Monster” explained how hard it was for her to not be actively performing for her fans for so long, whom she says she lives to make happy.

“I thought about nothing but my fans every minute since that tour ended,” Gaga told our “GMA” anchors. “It was intense, especially because I’m such an active person and I love performing so much. It was challenging to stop performing. That was the hardest part, not seeing the fans, not performing, not playing the music.”

But Gaga used the necessary down time to focus on her creativity to channel into her new album, “Artpop,” which will be released on Nov. 11.

“I’m not just a musician. I’m also a creative mind,” the multi-platinum artist said. “It made it much more intense and amazing. Because I couldn’t do anything else but create. I couldn’t dance, I couldn’t walk, so I created. I wrote all my ideas down every day. I obsessed over it.”

The songstress had completed 99 shows of her hugely successful “Born this Way” tour earlier this year before her hip accident occurred 20 shows prior to the tour’s completion. But while she was recovering and undergoing intense rehabilitation, Gaga found other ways to maintain her musical prowess.

“I actually rehearsed lying down a lot,” she said. “I couldn’t help myself. I would play the song and I would do the choreography on my back and visualize the fans. I thought of them every second.”

The first single off her new album, “Artpop,” is officially out today, but “Applause” is already number one in dozens of countries worldwide.

“Seeing it in Times Square is a total dream come true,” said Gaga. “I really felt like I could be myself in this video.”

Gaga drew her inspiration for “Applause” from her “Little Monster” fans, their love of the music and how she was deeply saddened by how much she missed them.

“We put this clown makeup on my face and as an ode to the jester,” she said. “As I was performing on the set, I started to feel really emotional and sad because I hadn’t seen my fans for a long time. It’s very different performing for a camera than performing for 50,000 people. It feels different, and I truly miss them. So I took my hands and I smudged the makeup down my face like tears, and I began to cry while I was singing, singing, ‘I live for the applause.’

“What I mean is not that I live for attention, but I live for making them happy,” Gaga said of her fans. “And that’s when the applause happens. When the audience loves it.”

And as Lady Gaga opens the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Aug. 25, she will certainly hear that applause once more.