Zürcher Nachrichten - Freed from Belarus, founder of Lady Gaga's biggest fan site tells his story

In September, they got their answer: the founder of "Gaga Daily" had been in prison in Belarus.

The authoritarian country, a close ally of Moscow wedged between Russia and the European Union, had jailed creator Kirill Nguyen for taking part in protests against strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Sorry about the lack of updates, I was literally in prison," Nguyen wrote, revealing his identity.

Launched when he was just 14, the channel counts more than four million followers across social media and has repeatedly been praised by Gaga herself.

In a telephone interview with AFP -- from a country not being disclosed for his security -- Nguyen recounted his improbable story from Gaga fandom to protest and prison.

- From protest to prison -

For over 15 years, Nguyen ran Gaga Daily single-handedly, publishing a daily stream of news and gossip about the Artpop singer.

Then politics caught up with him.

In August 2020, Lukashenko -- in power since 1994 -- claimed victory in presidential elections decried by the opposition as rigged.

For weeks, tens of thousands of protesters demanded his resignation.

Nguyen, the son of a Vietnamese father and a Belarusian mother, was among them.

Backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko violently crushed the protests, arresting thousands.

Nguyen escaped the initial wave of persecution, having moved to Moscow.

But after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the 32-year-old went back to Belarus, where security services caught up with him.

In February 2024, Nguyen was arrested in Minsk and sentenced to one and a half years in prison, later extended by a year.

Viasna, a Belarusian human rights group, listed him as a political prisoner.

"At the beginning, when I was new to prison stuff, Lady Gaga was the last thing I could think about," he told AFP.

- 'Gay club' music -

While still in prison in early 2025, Nguyen's friends sent him letters telling him Gaga had released a new single: "Abracadabra".

He was glued to prison radio for several days until hearing the track, which he savoured.

Despite her massive gay following, Gaga is popular in Belarus and Russia, two countries where homophobia is widely prevalent.

"It was actually really funny to listen to the radio in prison, because it's the same music you would hear at a gay club, pretty much," Nguyen told AFP.

He chalked this up to a lack of understanding of English.

"You have like all these bald dudes, walking around, doing labour, and Troye Sivan is playing and the next song is by Nicki Minaj. And then it's Lady Gaga."

Rush, by Australian singer Troye Sivan, is "quite literal about having sex with dudes", he said.

A lot of dance tracks liked by the gay community bear parallels with "estrada", he said, referring to a campy, theatrical style of performance art that is popular in the former Soviet Union.

- 'I love this song' -

Nguyen never told anyone he was the founder of Gaga Daily while in prison, for fear of getting in trouble.

But there were moments when he met other Gaga fans behind bars.

"There is a radio playing and a Lady Gaga song comes on and this guy out of nowhere just says, 'I love this song. I love it.' And you're just thinking: 'Wow, that's great'."

One day, he was asked to choose a film to be shown in his barracks.

He opted for "Joker: Folie a Deux", in which Gaga played a leading role.

The more than two-hour-long musical was panned by critics upon its release in 2024, and -- unsurprisingly -- did not go down well with his fellow inmates, who demanded the screening be stopped.

"It was not their thing," he said.

Since his release, he has been rebuilding his life outside Belarus and quickly caught up on all the latest news about Lady Gaga.

He has also received countless messages of support from other fans.

Knowing that millions of people like him were obsessed with Gaga and the tiny details of her life was, in the grand scheme of things, "pretty silly", he told AFP.

"But at the same time, it's interesting that all these little things, they create communities, right? And these little things... make connections between people that are so much bigger than the pop star."

F.Carpenteri--NZN