Who was BORN THIS WAY?

Freshly released from the mother monster's oven, Gaga's new song is the subject of many a debate about its obvious Madonna "references". It seems that gone are the days when "Just Dance" and "Bad Romance" were creating a hype with their original sound and catchy hooks. References from Bowie to Queen were thrown in for a good measure, but in the past year, it appears that the only thing the lady has offered is "recycled Madonna". 






And I don't just mean references here. If you saw her Grammy performance of Born This Way already, it is inevitable to spot the "Express Yourself" rip-offs. The melody, the dance moves, the lyrics, the hair....

For a moment, when I saw her incubating in that egg, I thought this would be a new incarnation of Gaga, with a new, original image that doesn't copy or in other words "reference" the most ground-breaking artist of our time. There was a great build-up to her performance which was expected to be something unseen. 

Well, it wasn't.  The body-modification, alien-humanoid look that we have seen in Torture Garden or even on the fashion

catwalk (Alexander McQueen was doing it when Bad Romance was still in the making) is less impressive than her earlier offerings and the continuous Madonna "borrowings" or rip-offs, as some might argue, are being tired now. When "Telephone" was aired and Gaga strutted in her underwear as an "Open Your Heart"-lookalike, it seemed sweet. It was a tribute. Then there was the rather naff "Alejandro" with its "Vogue" visuals that the kids all loved so much. Then came the numerous 90's casual Madonna looks during premiers and interviews [most notably on Larry King] and it never stopped. 

Declaring she has the Queen of Pop's "support," Gaga defended herself on Monday night against critics who have [sensibly] called her a Madonna rip-off artist.

On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" the 24-year-old singer addressed this saying:

"I got an email from [Madonna's] people and her sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single," Gaga told Leno, "and if the queen says it shall be, then it shall be."

Well, we can argue how sincere is the show-business as we all know that the numerous fans, otherwise known as little monsters, are now certainly rushing to buy Blonde Ambition and other early Madonna works that they had never known before, so it seems a clever move from a person with the biggest Showbiz "know-how". Of course Madonna won't risk losing her Queen status by slagging the most commercial new artist, she needs all the votes she can get. And if that means letting someone rip her off, then be it. It's the way they do it in US of A. They must be born this way.