This Is When Gaga Truly Made It

[Future Lovers 6,901]

As many know, Weird Al Yankovic parodying your song is seen as a mark of huge honor in the industry. Many have said that you've never truly made it as an artist until he has parodied one of your tracks. Honestly, I kinda have to agree. Through his whole career he's been known for setting his sights on some of the biggest and best current talent that the world's got to offer and whenever he does, there's usually quite a lot of love and reverence for his subject and the song in general. 

He parodied Born This Way, his version called Perform This Way and is centered on Gaga's iconic costumes and stage performances. It's clear that he has a lot of love and respect for Gaga through this and unlike a lot of parodies of her, is incredibly respectful toward her as an artist. He's not making fun of her here, he's really just having fun with her aesthetic and I think that's an important distinction as a lot of people in this era when they did parodies simply made fun of the subject. 

Weird Al is of course known for being respectful to the artist. He is not legally required to seek their permission to parody their song as parody is not considered a reproduction of a copyrighted work. However, he always does anyway just out of pure kindness. And to boot, if the artist says no, then he doesn't do it even though he has every legal right to. As such, he's gained a lot of respect and artists tend to love his versions and Gaga was no different. 

Initially upon release it was reported that Gaga wasn't happy with the parody but this was later proven to be false. She stated in an interview that she was flattered by it, calling it a "rite of passage", adding "I actually really appreciate the philosophy behind the song. It’s actually very empowering, I think.”

I also really love it and think this was just another indication of how much at the time she'd really tapped deeper into pop culture than anyone ever thought possible in a post-Michael and post-Madonna world. 

 

[julz 7,008]

I have always seen this video but never really finished watching it until now. This really showed her limitlessness and how larger than life she is. Gaga really did aim to be on MJ and Madonna's level, and she made that goal clear to all of us. Very brave.

 

For me though, she truly made it when she won multiple awards at the VMAs, wearing the meat dress and singing a snippet of BTW. She made it clear to everyone that she is no one hit or few hits wonder, she is here to stay and slay.