When Lady Gaga released "Born This Way" nearly a year ago, pop superstar Madonna remained mum on the comparisons drawn between Gaga's ode to self-love and her own 1989 hit "Express Yourself." In fact, Madonna's camp remained eerily quiet in the days after Gaga's "Born This Way" performance at the Grammy Awards, offering no comment save the coincidental uploading of a 1989 live performance of "Express Yourself" to Madonna's official YouTube channel.
But now that Madonna has a movie to promote (the critically panned W.E.) she's willing to speak on the subject. In an interview with Newsweek, Madonna laid down the ultimate in passive aggression: "I thought, this is a wonderful way to redo my song. I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was... interesting."
Lady Gaga was moved to tears discussing the accusations of musical plagiarism in an interview with the UK's NME last year. "That's retarded. If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It's the same one that's been in disco music for the last 50 years. Just because I'm the first f---ing artist in 25 years to think of putting it on Top 40 radio, it doesn't mean I'm a plagiarist, it means I'm f---ing smart. Sorry."
She subsequently apologized for her use of the word "retarded."Madonna raised some eyebrows last August when she told French magazine Le Soir, "As for Lady Gaga, I have no comment to make about her obsession with me because I don't know whether her behavior is rooted in something deep and meaningful, or superficial.