Born This Way by Lady Gaga
In
honor of LGBTQ Pride Month and
especially the Woodstock Pride Promenade
tomorrow, June 14 from noon to 3pm one of the most popular
gay anthems seems more than appropriate.
I remember marching with PFLAG, McHenry
County Pride members, and others of us from the Tree of Life UU Congregation in a Crystal Lake Independence Day Parade a few years ago behind a
decorated pick-up truck blasting Born This Way. Even an old
breeder like me was joyously bopping down the street and the crowds all along the route cheered and danced along too. It’s that kind of song.
 |
| Members of PFLAG, McHenry County Pride, and the Tree of Life UU Congregation lined up for the Crystal Lake Independence Day Parade in 2015, A sound system on the red Jeep blasted Born This Way and we all bopped along the parade route. |
Born This Way by Lady Gaga was the lead single from her second studio
album of the same name and co-written
by Gaga and Jeppe Laursen. It was developed while Gaga was on the road with The Monster Ball Tour.
Inspired by ‘90s music which empowered
women and the gay community,
Gaga explained that Born This Way was
her freedom song.
The
song reached #1 in over 25 countries
and was Gaga’s third single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart and has
sold 8.2 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling singles of
all time.
The
accompanying music video was
inspired by surrealist painters like
Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon. Gaga was depicted as giving birth to a new race
during a prologue. After a series of
dance sequences, the video concludes
with the view of a city populated by this race. Critics noted the video’s
references to the work of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Björk, and the late fashion
designer Alexander McQueen, as well as to Greek mythology.
 |
| Lady Gaga has literally put her money where her mouth with the Born This Way Foundation which has donated millions to empower oppressed communities. |
Gaga
performed the song at the 53rd Grammy
Awards after coming out of an incubating
vessel. Born This Way was later performed on TV shows, such as Saturday Night Live, Dick Clark’s New Year's
Rockin’ Eve and Good Morning America, and as part of
her Super Bowl LI halftime show.
Alice Cooper, Madonna, Katy Perry, Maria Aragon, and the cast
of the TV series Glee have covered the song.
 |
| Lady Gaga wrote Born This Way while on her 2011 Monster Ball Tour and added a performance to the second half of that tour. |
Gaga
said in a Billboard interview:
I want to write
my this-is-who-the-fuck-I-am anthem, but I don’t want it to be hidden in poetic
wizardry and metaphors. I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue
because I think, especially in today’s music, everything gets kind of washy
sometimes and the message gets hidden in the lyrical play. Harkening back to
the early ‘90s, when Madonna, En Vogue,
Whitney Houston and TLC were making very empowering music
for women and the gay community and all kind of disenfranchised communities,
the lyrics and the melodies were very poignant and very gospel and very
spiritual and I said, “That’s the kind of record I need to make. That’s the
record that’s going to shake up the industry.” It’s not about the track. It’s
not about the production. It’s about the song. Anyone could sing Born This Way. It could’ve been anyone
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