Madonna's mash-up reignites Gaga feud (+video)

8:15 AM Wednesday May 30, 2012

Call it Express Yourself vs Born This Way: Redux. Or just plain reductive.

When Lady Gaga released her much-hyped single Born This Way last year, it kicked off a bit of a stink. The song, critics charged, sounded stunningly similar to Madonna's 1989 hit Express Yourself.

After months of keeping mum, the Material Girl herself referenced the similarities between the two songs earlier this year.

Madge told Newsweek that when she first heard the song, she felt it was a "redo" of Express Yourself", and "thought it was ... interesting".

She also told ABC's Cynthia McFadden: "When I heard it [Born This Way] on the radio ... I said that sounds very familiar," Madonna said, adding, "It felt reductive".

When asked if "reductive" was good or bad, Madonna replied, "Look it up".

Gaga dismissed the criticism, and branded the Madonna comparisons "completely ridiculous".

"I'm a songwriter. I've written loads of music," the singer asserted in an interview with NME.

"Why would I try to put out a song and think I'm getting one over on everybody? That's retarded."

She continued: "What a completely ridiculous thing to even question me about ... 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**king artist in 25 years to think of putting it on Top 40 radio, it doesn't mean I'm a plagiarist, it means that I'm f**king smart. Sorry!"

'She's not me ...'

Madonna looks set to resurrect the controversy over the comparisons when she kicks off her MDNA tour in Israel later this week.

Video footage has surfaced - reportedly shot by a resourceful snoop at the Ramat Gan Stadium, Tel Aviv, over the weekend - of Madge performing Express Yourself before seamlessly weaving in the chorus of Gaga's 2011 hit, Born This Way.

The medley ends with a rendition of She's Not Me from Madonna's 2008 album Hard Candy - a track in which Madge calls out another woman for "stealing, stealing, stealing" her look and style.

A playful dig at Mother Monster, or a winking acknowledgement of the whole brouhaha?

Check out the footage below:

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