Remember that time Lady Gaga won a few Grammys and thanked not the Material Girl, but a one Miss Whitney Houston? It seems so recent! But even though her song sounds like Madonna‘s “Express Yourself” (with hints of Kelly Rowland’s “When Love Takes Over”), and her busty wardrobe seems a little familiar, The Gaga isn’t about to admit she ripped her off. “There really is no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me,” she told Jay Leno last night. “I am the hugest fan personally and professionally. The good news is that I got an email from her people and her sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single, and if the queen says, ‘It shall be,’ then it shall be.” Nevermind that she’s reissuing “Express Yourself” in a completely unrelated move. (Cue to 8:30 for the Madonna question)
“Have you ever met anybody in your age group that’s against gay rights,” Leno asks Gaga. “Yes, of course I have,” she responds. Hey, me too! Bloggers: They’re just like Lady Gaga!
LOL
“sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single”
BITCH, PLEASE!
Qjersey
No one seems to be up in arms over all the DIRECT rip offs done by Hip-Hop acts (Black Eyed Peas, I’m talking to you) with the rampant sampling. Take a great chorus from an old song and sandwich it with some incoherent rapping.
Luxury
First. It’s not a complete rip-off. There are certain parts of the song that have the same melody as “Express..”, but a complete rip off is a stretch.
Second, the Madonna influence is always gonna be with Gaga, so either DEAL, or move on to the next act. It’s not that serious. She’s not forcing you to buy or listen to her music.
Marc
@Qjersey:
Maybe because they generally clear the rights and pay a fee to use the sample?
Sean F.
I personally don’t think the songs are similar enough to warrant all his negativity. This smacks of people’s insatiable desire to see someone successful fail.
IE
I guess I’m musically challenged. The songs don’t sound alike at all to me.
Nathan
@Qjersey: Rap? More like c-rap, AM I RIGHT GUYS?!?! If you can’t understand what rappers are saying, you need to get a new hearing aid, old timer.
Red Meat
Shouldn’t we be blaming RedOne, you know, the producer. All Lady Gaga did was say yes or no to whatever RedOne brought to the table.
redmont
@Red Meat: RedOne didn’t produce this track, this one is Garibay and DJ White Shadow
Marc
I’d love to see Madonna is sueing that fake bitch. BTW is she now goth widow?
EdWoody
@Nathan: Hey that’s genius is that. My Dad made that joke 30 years ago.
dani
omg with all the angry queens here, is funny. Well if Madonna said that I couldn’t be more happy, it shows that we both have great taste in music y’all!
I5.
@Luxury: None of the melody of Gaga’s song is even remotely like “Express Yourself.”. The only similarity is some of the arrangement and beat, which you cannot copyright like you can a melody.
Yuriy
being honest madonna’s express yourself sounds so different from born this way… like seriously how can you even have the courage to cramp those two awesome stars together?
lady gaga is doing things her own way just as madonna does hers. It’s silly to believe that either one of them is peaking over to steal music.
kityglitr
Really wishing y’all would check out Rich J’s post on fourfour about this song. He lays down some truth in regards to the way Gaga’s song references a very specific moment in dance music history, and that moment is not Shep Pettibone. Express Yourself is all slick beats sparse arrangements. Yeah, Gaga’s verses harken back to the Madonna song, but the music itself is pure high NRG a la Peter Hernandez!
CECE
@Nathan: Old people generally can’t stand rap music, my own grandpa included….So
LOL
WOW. The queerty staff DISAPPOINT ME with this post. The two songs are not even similar enough for all this bullshit thats going around. Madonna has no problem with Gaga and supports her fully.
Pip
i think its a pretty transparent homage. this is the same artist who debuted with a david bowie lightning bolt on her face. blonde ambition madonna is probably my favorite, so i like that gaga drew from that era.
swarm
Not only is it Express Yourself but also Waterfall,Vogue, When Love Takes Over, Walk Away, God Is A Dj,Fever
Watch @gocheeksgo show you right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD93yzTU_SQ
Zeus
WHO CARES? It’s a decent, fun song with a good message. It’s not like her and Madonna are in direct competition with new music out at the same time and one is copying from the other. I see that GaGa has reached the threshold of popularity now where people will just start hating her for being too famous.
Sean F.
@swarm: If anything that video seemed to prove that outside of a handful of lines, the song doesn’t share much in common with any of those songs. The fact that they sound decent (well, as decent as that guy’s singing allows them to) over the music is no big shock, as DJ Earworm’s mashups have long been known to show how easy it is to blend today’s pop hits together.