Pop diva Lady Gaga has slammed the music industry for being "a boys club" after accepting the Woman of the Year award at this year's Billboard Women in Music event in New York City on Friday.

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The singer also drew everyone's applause for her touching performance of "Til It Happens to You," - a tribute to victims of sexual assaults.  

Gaga's mother Cynthia Germanotta, introduced her before she was handed the award.

Germanotta recalled that her daughter started walking by holding on to the leg of the family piano, "and in the process managed to reach the keys."

Gaga went on stage in a ruby red suit as she sang the song which she co-wrote with iconic songwriter Diane Warren. The song is featured in the campus rape documentary The Hunting Ground.

After her mom handed her the award, Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who just recently received her first Golden Globe nomination for her role in American Horror Story: Hotel, lashed at the music industry for sidelining female singers. She said that it is "really hard sometimes for women in music. It's like a fucking boys club that we just can't get into."

"Women provide a wisdom to music that is very unique and special," Gaga explained."It is a perspective no one else can have because we bear life. And because we go through things no one else goes through. And because it's right. Because we're all equal."

The diva concluded her speech by giving message to the people who did not believe in her from the start.

"I couldn't wait to prove you wrong. Because I may not be a lot of things, but I can write songs, and I can sing," she said. 

TagsLady Gaga, billboard women in music, Til It Happens to You, Lady Gaga & Diane Warren Til It Happens to You