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A songwriter and music producer claims pop star Lady Gaga squeezed him out of her lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped her get a record deal.

Rob Fusari has filed a $35 million (€25.6 milion) lawsuit in New York City against the Grammy Award-winning singer, saying his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared.

His lawsuit says he has credits on such hits as Will Smith’s Wild, Wild West  and Destiny’s Child’s Bootylicious.

It says a friend steered the piano-playing Lady Gaga to him in March 2006, when she was known by her real name, Stefani Germanotta.

Lady Gaga’s spokesman, Dave Tomberlin, was not available for comment.

Although he initially dismissed her, Fusari realised she had star potential after hearing her play in his Livingston, New Jersey, studio, the lawsuit said. He spent the next few months working with her every day and “radically reshaping her approach”, persuading her to drop rock riffs for dance beats, it said.

As they co-wrote songs such as Paparazzi  and Beautiful, Dirty, Rich,  which would appear on her debut album, The Fame,  he transformed Germanotta into Lady Gaga, a name adapted from Queen’s Radio Ga Ga,  the lawsuit said.