Lady Gaga Slams Ageism in Pop Music as She Accepts 2025 iHeartRadio Innovator Award: 'I'm Just Getting Warmed Up' at 38

Cue the applause for Lady Gaga.

The "Abracadabra" singer, 38, was honored with the Innovator Award at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 17, where she spoke about her legacy and love for the LGBTQ+ community in her acceptance speech.

After Gaga thanked Doechii who presented her with the award and dubbed her "an innovator already," the "Born This Way" singer said she was "deeply touched."

"I don't know totally how to think about this because winning an award honoring my entire career at 38 years old is a hard thing to get my head around," Gaga began. "On the one hand, I feel like I've been doing this forever and on the other hand, I know I'm just getting started. So even though the world might consider a woman in her late thirties old for a pop star, which is insane, I promise that I'm just getting warmed up."

The "Disease" singer continued: "Innovation isn't about breaking rules, it's about writing your own and convincing the world they were theirs all along. Like showing up to the Grammys in an egg or creating an anthem that everyone told us was too controversial until it became undeniable. If I have learned anything in three decades I've been at this, it's that the most powerful innovation is your authenticity."

Gaga spoke about how the voice in her head when she was the only woman in the room always told her not to "compromise."

"Tonight I think of my grandmothers, fiercely brilliant Italian-American women who reinvented their destinies with nothing but strength, dreams and determination," she said. "They didn't invent technology or art, they invented possibility, shaping the future with nothing more than their minds. And those women, my ancestors, are the greatest women that I've ever known."

Gaga then paid tribute to her inspirations, including David Bowie, Grace Jones, Carole King, Elton John, Lady Starlight, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington, Cher and her "dear friend Tony Bennett who taught me to embrace the classics but never be bound by them."

The "Killah" singer then thanked her "little monsters" and the LGBTQ+ community for seeing her "so clearly" over the years.

"And to the LGBTQ+ community, you taught me bravery before the world was ready to listen. You have changed the world for the better, and your courage fuels mine every day," said Gaga.

"To every artist who has ever been told they're 'different,' 'complicated' or 'too much,' please, never change. Break the mold. The world doesn't need another copy, it desperately needs your original," she concluded.

In addition to the 2025 iHeartRadio Innovator Award, Gaga also earned nominations at the ceremony in the best collaboration and best music video categories for "Die with a Smile" with Bruno Mars (which won a Grammy Award in February) as well as favorite on screen for the Gaga Chromatica Ball film.

Check out all of PEOPLE's full iHeartRadio Music Awards coverage here.

The 14-time Grammy winner's latest album, Mayhem, was released March 7, and she's been quite busy on the promotional train, appearing on popular online shows like Hot Ones and the podcast Las Culturistas.

Gaga served as both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live's March 8 episode, delivering performances of "Abracadabra" and Gesaffelstein collaboration "Killah."

Mayhem — which debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart — is the singer's latest release after The Fame (2008), The Fame Monster (2009), Born This Way (2011), Artpop (2013), Joanne (2016) and Chromatica (2020).

In a statement shared alongside the new album's release, she spoke in a statement about how the project marked a return to her roots in a new way. "The album started as me facing my fear of returning to the pop music my earliest fans loved," she explained.

Continuing the note, Gaga said the style of Mayhem is similar to "reassembling a shattered mirror: even if you can’t put the pieces back together perfectly, you can create something beautiful and whole in its own new way."

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Other special honorees at this year's iHeartRadio Music Awards include Mariah Carey with the 2025 iHeartRadio Icon Award, Taylor Swift with Tour of the Century for her record-breaking Eras Tour and Nelly with the 2025 iHeartRadio Landmark Award for artists whose "album releases have inspired and shaped culture over multiple decades."

The 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards air live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday, March 17, at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. Fans can also tune in live to iHeartRadio stations nationwide and on the iHeartRadio app.