(Reuters) – Lady Gaga's fans, whom she often refers to as her "little monsters," were out in force this week in her hometown of New York City. She enjoyed three sold out concerts and morning chat show "Today" said they had their largest crowd ever with up to 18,000 fans outside their Rockefeller Plaza studios for a performance on Friday morning.

On her second concert tour performing songs from two albums — "The Fame" and "The Fame Monster" — Gaga surely knows the money in music these days generally comes more from concert touring than album sales.

On "Today," she connected directly to her fans, from the "freaks" to the "New York City gay kids," telling them: "you can be whoever you want to be, my little monsters."