Born This Way (song)
"Born This Way" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga, and the lead single from her second studio album of the same name. Written by Gaga and Jeppe Laursen, who produced it along with Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow, the track was developed while Gaga was on the road with the Monster Ball Tour. Inspired by 1990s music which empowered women, minorities, and the LGBT community, Gaga explained that "Born This Way" was her freedom song. It was also inspired by Carl Bean and his song "I Was Born This Way", released in 1977. She sang part of the chorus at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and announced it as the lead single from the album, released on February 11, 2011.
This article is about the Lady Gaga song. For other songs, see Born This Way."Born This Way"
February 2010
February 11, 2011
2010
- Abbey Road (London)
- Germano (New York City)
4:20
- Streamline
- KonLive
- Interscope
- Lady Gaga
- Fernando Garibay
- Jeppe Laursen
- DJ White Shadow
The song is backed by rumbling synth sounds, a humming bass and additional chorus percussion, with sole organ toward the end. The lyrics discuss the self-empowerment of the LGBT community and racial minorities. Critics positively reviewed the song, calling it a "club-ready anthem". In 2023, Rolling Stone named "Born This Way" the Most Inspirational LGBT Song of All Time. It reached number one in over 25 countries and was her third single to top the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and the 1,000th song in that chart's history (since 1958) to reach number one. "Born This Way" has sold 8.2 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.
Nick Knight directed the accompanying music video, which was inspired by surrealist painters like Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon. Gaga is 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 and fashion designer Alexander McQueen, as well as to Greek mythology and surrealism.
Gaga performed the song at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards after coming out of an incubating vessel. Shortly after, she added it to the setlist of the last leg of the Monster Ball Tour. "Born This Way" was later performed on television shows, such as Saturday Night Live, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and Good Morning America, many of the singer's tours, and it was notably part of her Super Bowl LI halftime show set. The song was treated with different remixes, including a "Country Road" version recorded by Gaga herself and another by Indian production duo Salim–Sulaiman. It has been covered by artists such as Alice Cooper, Madonna, and Katy Perry.
Composition and lyrics[edit]
"Born This Way" was written and composed by Gaga and Jeppe Laursen (formerly of the band Junior Senior), with the arrangement was held by Gaga and Fernando Garibay. Gaga and Laursen produced the track with Paul Blair (a.k.a. DJ White Shadow) and Garibay,[6][22] while it was recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in London and Germano Studios in New York.[23] The electropop and house[24][25][26] song begins with Gaga's voice uttering the line "It doesn't matter if you love him or capital H-I-M" on a loop, backed by a rumbling synth sound and a humming bass.[27][28] As the synths change into a beat, Gaga belts out the song's first verse, followed by the bass dropping off and the percussion-backed chorus, "I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes; I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way", which Jocelyn Vena from MTV likened as being "meant to be heard in a big space. It's fast and hard-hitting."[27][28] After the chorus, she chants the line "Don't be a drag, Just be a queen", making a reference to drag queens, a number of times on top of handclaps, before moving to the second verse.[29] After the second chorus, a rap interlude and bridge follows, where Gaga chants the names of various communities. Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine felt that the interlude is a mixture of the music from American television show, Glee, and the song "There But For the Grace of God Go I" by Machine.[30] The music fades out for a moment as Gaga continues to sing, before the addition of an organ and Gaga closes the song.[27] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Born This Way" is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderate dance beat tempo of 124 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of F-sharp major (in the F♯ Mixolydian mode) as Gaga's voice spans the tonal nodes of F♯3 to C♯5. "Born This Way" follows a chord progression of F♯5–F♯–E–B–F♯ in the chorus.[31]
The lyrics during the verses talk about empowerment, while the chorus talks about making no apologies and accepting one as themselves.[32] It features the names of LGBT and other minority communities, which was due to the support Gaga had received from the community over the years. She also explained that since The Fame (2008) and The Fame Monster (2009) did not directly address those communities, "Born This Way" was her chance to create something that not only supported her political and social beliefs, but also empowered her to artistically say, "'I'm not being safe with this record.' I'm not trying to gain new fans. I love the fans I already have, and this is for them."[1]
After the early release of the lyrics, it had garnered criticism from some Asian[33] and Hispanic communities, including Latino groups MECha and Chicanos Unidos Arizona.[34] Radio stations in Malaysia chose to censor the part of the lyrics dealing with the acceptance of the LGBT community, due to censorship in the country of content that may be deemed offensive.[35] In response, Gaga urged her Malaysian fans, who wanted the uncensored version to be played, to take action by stating: "It is your job and it is your duty as young people to have your voices heard. You must do everything that you can if you want to be liberated by your society. You must call, you must not stop, you must protest peaceably."[36]
Accolades[edit]
At the end of 2011, Slant Magazine listed "Born This Way" as the fifth best song of the year, with Ed Gonzalez from the website commenting that the song is an "unmistakable landmark pop-cultural moment, a post-irony, post-metaphor, pansexual celebration, aimed squarely at the audience that probably needs it the most."[114] It also placed the same rank on the list by MTV, with Gil Kaufman from the channel saying that the song and the music video "added to Gaga's mind-tripping visual canon and further established her as one of the biggest triple threats in music."[115] PopMatters listed it at position 73 on their list of "The 75 Best Songs of 2011", with Sean McCarthy from the website saying that although Born This Way "is a labor to listen to because of its over-the-topness. No such problems exist with the title track. All of the Gaga's strengths on her one-hour monolith are condensed into a four-minute unstoppable ode to the outcasts of the world."[116] Furthermore, The Guardian listed "Born This Way" as the 18th best song of 2011.[117]
The video won two awards at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, in the categories of Best Female Video and Best Video With a Message.[118] Along with the song winning the 2011 MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song, Gaga won also the award for Best Video with "Born This Way" at the same event.[119] The song also set a world record at the Guinness World Records as the "Fastest-selling Single" on iTunes, with over a million copies sold in five days since its release.[120]
Live performances[edit]
2011 Grammys and The Monster Ball[edit]
Gaga first performed "Born This Way" live on February 13, 2011, at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. She arrived at the ceremony in a giant incubating vessel that was carried onto the red carpet by numerous fashion models.[121] She later emerged from another bigger egg on stage, dressed in a high ponytail, gold bra top and long skirt, with black and gold makeup and pointed shoulders and horns protruding from her face.[121][122] The "Born This Way" performance was introduced by Ricky Martin. In the first few seconds after performing the intro of the song, Gaga emerged from the egg,[1] and after the first chorus, she whipped her hair in a manner similar to singer Willow Smith. Before the "No matter gay, straight or bi" line of the song, an organ emerged from the stage floor.[123] Gaga played the music on the organ, which was surrounded by mannequin heads submerged in gel, before belting out the rest of the bridge as her dancers surrounded her.[121][123] Before leaving the stage, Gaga put on her trench and hat as the song faded out and Gaga and her dancers ended the performance with their hands put up in paws.[121]