“Monster” singer Lady Gaga apologized on Wednesday for saying it’s “retarded” to think her new single “Born This Way” is a blatant copy of Madonna’s “Express Yourself”.
Lady Gaga released a statement to Perez Hilton on Wednesday explaining that it’s out of character for her to make fun of others in such a way.
“I consider it part of my life’s work and music to push the boundaries of love and acceptance,” the Grammy Award-winning pop sensation wrote. “My apologies for not speaking thoughtfully. To anyone that was hurt, please know that it was furiously unintentional. An honest mistake, requires honesty to make.”
It wasn’t long before Lady Gaga, who has been a major anti-bullying advocate since last year’s suicide of gay Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, incorporated bullying into her statement.
“Whether life’s disabilities, left you outcast bullied or teased, rejoice and love yourself today,” Lady Gaga wrote.
The “Just Dance” artist has apparently redeemed her image with the Special Olympics. CEO Tim Shriver blogged on Thursday, “Rarely a day goes by when each of us doesn’t think of something in the world we’d like to change. But most of the time, change is elusive and what we hope will be different just stays the same. But then other times, we see a change right in front of our eyes and it makes us want to cheer. That’s what happened today when Lady Gaga changed.”
Shriver seems to view Lady Gaga as an ally now, having written, “I know Lady Gaga has millions of fans around the world because of her music, but now she has fans for another reason as well. She’s joined the campaign to open the world’s eyes to the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities and that’s a whole new reason to dance.”
Earlier this week, Lady Gaga faced immense scrutiny when NME magazine published her comments about others saying she ripped off Madonna’s popular 1980s tune.
“That’s retarded,” Lady Gaga told NME of copycat accusations. “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 fucking 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.”