Around this time last year when Lady Gaga released “Born This Way,” music enthusiasts from all over noted that the single reminded them of Madonna‘s 90’s hit “Express Yourself.” Turns out, Madonna was thinking the same thing!
Now that Madonna is prepping the release of her next album “M.D.N.A.” the Pop diva has finally weighed in on the controversy, and had some choice words for Lady Gaga in a new interview with ABC’s 20/20.
“I certainly think she references me a lot in her work. And sometimes I think it’s amusing and flattering and well done,” she said.
Madonna said sometimes Gaga’s work also appears 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.”
“There’s a lot of ways to look at it. I can’t really be annoyed by it …because, obviously, I’ve influenced her.” But the Material Girl became coy when the conversation turned to “Born This Way.” “When I heard it on the radio …I said that sounds very familiar,” Madonna said.
Asked if that felt annoying, Madonna responded, “It felt reductive.” Pressed as to whether that was a good or bad thing, Madonna told Cynthia McFadden to “look it up” before smiling slyly and taking a sip from her tea cup.
[ABC]
Reductive: “Tending to present a subject or problem in a simplified form, esp. one viewed as crude; minimal.”
In other words, Madonna called Lady Gaga “basic.” (Damn … shots fired!)
Madonna also weighed in on the “Born This Way” vs. “Express Yourself” controversy in a recent interview with Newsweek:
“I thought, this is a wonderful way to redo my song,” she said. “I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was . . . interesting.”
