Lady Gaga hits back at Madonna

Los Angeles: Without taking names, Lady Gaga has fired back at Madonna`s recent insinuation that the young pop star ripped off Queen of Pop`s single `Express Yourself` for her `Born This Way`.

The 26-year-old, who in the past has called Madonna an inspiration, is not happy with the way the 53-year-old singer has been taking jibes at her. In a rather abrupt break during her concert in Auckland, New Zealand last Thursday, the `Judas` singer ranted in front of her fans about what appeared to be an indirect reply to Madonna, the Hollywood Reporter said. "It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves to put other people down or make fun of them or maybe make mockery of their work. And that doesn`t make me feel good at all. That just makes me feel like I`m not being a good human being... I don`t even want to fight back because it`s more important to me to keep writing music," Gaga said in the middle of her performance of "Hair". "Because that`s really all I care about, is the music... things are really different than they were 25 years ago, and that`s what makes `Born This Way` so relevant for me. We`re socially in a different place and it`s OK, we don`t have to all slice and hate each other anymore," she added. Recently, Madonna mashed up Gaga`s hit single `Born This Way` with her own 1989 song `Express Yourself` during the Tel Aviv concert of her "MDNA" tour. At the end of the performance, Madge shouted to her fans, "She`s not me!", without mentioning who her target was. Things were not so bad between the two stars. Initially, Madonna was happy with Gaga`s claims that she inspired her but their friendship turned sour after `Born this way` release. Asked about her thoughts on the song, Madonna had said, "I thought it was reductive. I thought `What a wonderful way to redo my song.` I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was... Interesting." Addressing the controversy, Gaga had said, "The only similarities are the chord progression. Just because I`m the first 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 smart." PTI