Madonna: Lady Gaga's “Born This Way” is “Reductive” - NBC Connecticut

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 14: Lady Gaga and Madonna attend the Marc Jacobs 2010 Spring Fashion Show at the NY State Armory on September 14, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Marc Jacobs)

Madonna has finally expressed herself about Lady Gaga’s smash single “Born This Way” â€" nearly a year after the world deemed the disco anthem a rip-off of Madge’s 1989 chart-topper “Express Yourself.”

“I certainly think she references me a lot in her work. And sometimes I think it’s amusing and flattering and well done,” Madonna told ABC News’ 20/20 in an interview aired Friday night.

Apparently this is not one of those times.

“When I heard [“Born This Way”] on the radio, I said, ‘that sounds very familiar,’” Madonna said. “It feels reductive.”

When ABC interviewer Cynthia McFadden asked whether that was a good thing, Madonna smiled coyly, took a sip of tea and said, “Look it up.”

A quick peek in the dictionary reveals that reductive is defined as “simplified” or “crude.”

Lady Gaga, who counts herself the Material Girl’s “hugest fan personally and professionally,” has nevertheless criticized the collective comparisons to “Express Yourself.”

"I will look in your eyes and tell you that I'm not dumb enough or moronic enough to think that you are dumb or moronic enough not to see that I would have stolen a melody,” she said last year in an interview with NME magazine. “If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression.”

Madonna, who will headline next month’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, also in the interview called Gaga “a very talented artist” and said she admired her songwriting. In a separate interview in the upcoming issue of Newsweek, Madonna described “Born This Way” as “a wonderful way to redo my song. I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was…interesting.”

Whether you worship the Queen of Pop or revere its new reigning princess, one thing’s for certain â€" Madonna sure knows how to deliver a mean backhanded compliment.

Selected Reading: ABC News, E! Online, Reuters

Posted Saturday, Jan 14, 2012 - 3:02 PM EST

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