Madonna Once Shared A Bitter Feud With Lady Gaga, But Where Does Their Relationship Stand Today?

Madonna firmly believed that there were strong similarities between the two songs, yet she never received any acknowledgment by Gaga and her team.

Following the release of her debut album, The Fame, in 2008, Lady Gaga quickly became one of the biggest-selling pop stars in the world, thanks to countless hits such as Poker Face, Just Dance, and Paparazzi.

The record, which sold over 12 million copies, turned Gaga into a household name, but by 2011, while her career continued to skyrocket, the Applause chart-topper found herself in a feud with Madonna, who had implied that Gaga’s song Born This Way sounded very similar to her 1989 hit Express Yourself.

Fans were left divided by Madonna’s claims, but Gaga certainly wasn’t going to stay quiet, having made some controversial comments of her own, which made it very clear that these pop superstars certainly weren’t on good terms. But where does their relationship stand today?

Madonna And Lady Gaga’s Feud

Following the release of Born This Way, Madonna didn’t hesitate to share her thoughts on the song, insisting that the production of the track sounded very familiar.

Though Gaga and Madonna had previously worked together on a skit on Saturday Night Live back in 2009, by 2011, the latter had clearly taken issue with the supposed fact that her pop rival had taken inspiration from her work, which ultimately landed her another hit single.

Born This Way topped the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2011 and sold a whopping 8.2 million copies worldwide, but when looking at the songwriting and production credits, there’s no mention of Madonna, which was presumably one of the reasons she was upset about the situation.

She firmly believed that there were strong similarities between the two songs, yet she never received any acknowledgment by Gaga or her team.

“I thought, this is a wonderful way to redo my song. I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was… interesting,” Madge told ABC News, before going on to call the song “reductive.”

But that wasn’t all. Madonna then went on to say that she believes Gaga is heavily inspired by her work, which she’s picked up on just by listening to her music.

“I certainly think she references me a lot in her work,” she added. “And sometimes I think it’s amusing and flattering and well done.”

Gaga eventually responded to Madonna’s claims that she had ripped off her song, saying that if fans were to play both tracks side-by-side, the only similarities they would find are the chord progression.

She told NME: ”If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression.

Clearly angered by the accusations, Gaga continued: “It’s the same one that’s been in disco music for the last 50 years. Just because I’m the first f—ing 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—ing smart. Sorry.”

Gaga went on to address her issues with Madonna again in an interview with Howard Stern in 2013, telling the radio personality that she no longer pays her rival any attention.

Two years would go by before their feud was brought up again when Madge sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone where she addressed her problems with Gaga and what initially led to their disagreement behind the scenes.

“The only time I ever criticized Lady Gaga was when I felt like she blatantly ripped off one of my songs,” she said. ”It’s got nothing to do with ‘she’s taking my crown’ or ‘she’s in some space of mine.’ She has her thing.”

“I do think she’s a very talented singer and songwriter,” she continued. “It was just that one issue. And everybody’s obviously running with it and turned it into a huge feud, which I think is really boring, quite frankly. And you know what? I don’t care anymore.”

Later that year, in May, fans were stunned when Katy Perry posted a photo of herself posing with Gaga and Madonna at the Met Gala in New York.

Their feud appeared to be in the past by the time Gaga released her Netflix documentary Five Foot Two, where she touched on the matter, saying: “ […] And I still admire her, no matter what she might think of me. I just want Madonna to push me up against the wall and kiss me and tell me I’m a piece of shit.”

In 2018, during Gaga’s press tour for her highly-acclaimed film A Star Is Born, Madonna implied that the New York native had copied the same line from one of her old interviews, which Madonna then reposted on her Instagram Story to show the similarities between the two.

Gaga’s line read: “There can be 100 people in the room, and 99 don’t believe in you, but you just need one to believe in you,” the pop icon said in various different ways at press events this year.

In Madonna’s clip, she said: “If there’s 100 people in the room and 99 people said they liked it, I only remember the one person who didn’t.”

While it seems Madonnas was just throwing some light-hearted shade, could this potentially see another feud erupt between these two megastars?