Madonna's Brother Slams Lady Gaga as a Copycat

By Christine Fenno Posted Feb 13th 2011 12:36PM

Sure, there are two decades between the two songs in question, but Christopher Ciccone, younger brother of Madonna, says he's nevertheless astounded at how similar Lady Gaga's new single, 'Born This Way,' sounds to one of his sister's beloved anthems, 1989's 'Express Yourself.'

Gaga intends to perform her instant hit song at the Grammy Awards tonight, but first, Ciccone wanted the chance to express himself to RadarOnline this weekend.

"All I can say is 'What the F--K!" the director-designer says. "It sounds just like 'Express Yourself.' I can't believe it to tell you the truth."

As soon as the Gaga single debuted, listeners online began buzzing about the familiar beat, melody and vocals. Even the Washington Post described 'Born This Way' as "vaguely" reminiscent of the Madonna hit.

But Ciccone seems outraged, not flattered. Now 50, he was closely involved in Madonna's career when 'Express Yourself' was one of her signature songs, and he worked on the design and direction of her wildly successful tours during that era.

These days, Ciccone is reportedly estranged from his famous sibling, after penning the tell-all 'Life With My Sister Madonna' in 2008. Just last month, he analyzed Madge's obvious influence on Gaga's successful career, telling RadarOnline: "I can see a lot of my sister's influence in what Lady Gaga is doing today. It's like 'Madonna on speed' actually....I think Lady Gaga is a great writer, singer, and performance artist, but sometimes she goes too far with her costumes and persona and it must be hard for her fans to identify with that."

Tags: Lady Gaga, madonna

Comments

(78)

Sunday 13 February

By cchucklest1

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saw ms gaga on sixty minutes she is better built than ms madonna. performance is about the same.

By MAV

Madonna's brother has a bunch of sour grapes stuffed in his mouth. Get a life, will ya! If anyone should be sore it should be Madonna but as they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

By Mr Nonmonster

Disco just doesn't seem very new at all . For someone who takes chances and is a forward thinker this is big step backward . GaGa was wearing her living room curtains on the Grammys tonight .
" THE " Most uninspired performance from her

By fred

not the greatest, but definately taleted pleasant and likeable

By Nicole

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm Gaga can sing acapella and still sound wonderful...Madonna needs mixing. In the history of music there are several songs that sound similar. How tf could they not after all these years. Not like Gaga needs to copy anyone. Chris needs to mind his own business and let his sister speak for herself!!!

By Richard

Wonder if they live in the same trailer park???

By reality

skanks all

By mhphammes

Most of the acts of today are recycled imitations of Patti LaBelle and Cher. So what, they will make a little money and grab some headlines, then go the way of the Delorean. Who cares about what they steal and recycle, it is all fake smoke and mirrors.

By roger

ga ga rips everyone off. don't think she is original with the face paint and stuff. i seen that in the early 80s in strip clubs in Jacksonville fl. so no shes not original and she cant sing with out all that crap. put her on idol and she would fail just like most of your super pop stars. everyone thinks the eye make up was hers again i refer to Jacksonville. she said she was a rocker early on now just a sell out.

By Bob

In case you haven't figured it out yet. The horns were on the Lady's forehead. The things on top of her shoulders were breasts.

Monday 14 February

By Ki Ki

The whole show was imitations of other people. Lady Ripoff was only one incident.

By darwin

It DOES sound EXACTLY like Express Yourself. Because the age
difference between Madge and Gaga is like 20 years, the younger
generation who love Gaga is not really familiar w/ Madge's works
and shows etc. That is why they totally get pissed when people say she is a copycat. I like Gaga, she is talented and a very intelligent businesss woman (moreso than a singer)but she IS A COPYCAT. Sorry guys, It IS the truth.

By Jason

Unless your wanting to hear "express yourself" in GaGa's "born this way" I don't think they sound very much alike. Madonna was influenced by Monroe and alot of her sound and moves were strongly influenced if not taken from the underground singers and dancers of the 80s. I don't pay too much attention to what GaGa wears or does but like it or not she will add her influence to future music and performers. Her influence can already be heard in some of today's music. I would much rather listen to someone edgy and innovative than the industry machine produced performers like bieber, cyrus and the others.

By Mark

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You must be some 14 yr old girl to say something as stupid as that.

By Bruce

I love Madonna when she first came on the music scene and still do. Lady GAGA does not sound like Madonna style, her style is her own, be it musically or in fashion. She is interesting to look at and hear from. BUT tonight's performance will be her low point, by copying Madonna's music, Express yourself & a small portion of VOGUE (when she was talking in the middle of her song), only using her words to the music. And yes, I could not understand what she was saying during the performance except for the title of the song. It made me feel she was not prepared enough to sing this in public and actually had to borrowed someone else's music since she could not think what NEW music would go with her words. Don't get me wrong, Lady Gaga is talented since her earlier songs are great, tonight's not her best. At least she did win a grammy for her MONSTER album (cd), which was well deserved. Big surprise to me, how can an unknown band win Album of the year over Lady GAGA, Katy Perry, Eminem and Lady Antebellum? That was a slapped in their faces, even the audience was stunned on that one. What a way to end a show.

By Annie12

Not only was she doing a knockoff of "Express Yourself", in"Born This Way" but "Vogue" was woven in there too! The outrageous costuming only covers up a total lack of talent.

By Terri

What I meant was is that when she's in a video the outfits are great absouletly beautiful. I don't mean for her to tone down her business aspect of some of her clothes. She looked so fresh and down to earth in the bathroom scene of her video Bad Romance. I brings out the reall Lady Gaga is all. I love all of her cool clothes and her designers who mkae them, it just would be nice to see her in some normal for once just to show her fans that she's just a normal girl with normal problems just like all of the rest of us. I think she's wonderful.

Wednesday 16 February

By rosemary

Actually Madonna has been a copy cat of many celebs.

Liz Taylor, Maryln Monroe, Bettie Page, Joan Crawford, Debbie Harry, Cindy Lauper, Cher, just to name a few.

Also even in her earlier yrs she was credit for multiple bracelets, although that was done a few times (Jane Russell, Janis Joplin, and even Monroe).

Heck I recall Body of Evidence (a bad acting rip off of Basic Instinct).

Yet she is upset when someone copies her.

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