Lady Gaga hits back at Madonna after ‘Born This Way’ cover

Singer suggests Madonna 'made a mockery' of her work to feel better about herself

Lady Gaga has hit back at Madonna after footage emerged online last month showing Madonna teasing Gaga while performing in Israel.

Madonna sang “she’s not me” as she mashed up her classic track ‘Express Yourself’ with Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’. Seemingly responding to the video, Gaga hit back at her gig in Auckland, New Zealand, last night, telling fans: “You could never invalidate the power of ‘Born This Way’. I don’t want to be your fucking queen, I want to be your friend.”

She then suggested that Madonna was stuck in the 1980s, saying: “I don’t even want to fight back because it’s more important to me to keep writing music… things are really different than they were 25 years ago, and that’s what makes ‘Born this Way’ so relevant for me…We’re socially in a different place and it’s OK, we don’t have to all slice and hate each other any more.”

Advertisement

Gaga then added that Madonna had only put her down to feel better about herself: “It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves to put other people down or make fun of them or maybe make mockery of their work,” she told the crowd.

Madonna has previously spoken out about the similarities between ‘Express Yourself’ and Lady Gaga‘s ‘Born This Way’ by describing the latter as “reductive”.

Speaking on the US television programme 20/20, the singer confirmed she had noted the similarities between her 1989 track and Gaga’s 2011 single and said she found it “amusing”.

Referencing Gaga, she said: “She’s a very talented artist. I certainly think she references me a lot in her work. And sometimes I think it’s amusing and flattering and well done. [Her songs seem to be a] statement about taking something that was in the zeitgeist, you know, 20 years ago and turning it inside out and reinterpreting it.”

When asked about the similarities between the two tracks, meanwhile, she said:

When I heard [‘Born This Way’] on the radio… I said, ‘That sounds very familiar’… It felt reductive.

Previously, when NME had asked Gaga about the two tracks, she replied: “I will look you in your eyes and tell you that I am not dumb enough or moronic enough to think that you are dumb enough or moronic enough not to see that I would have stolen a melody… If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression.”

Advertisement

You can watch the video for Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ below.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/?bctid=807941839001

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories