I know some of you were talking about this controversy yesterday in the Lady Gaga/Jo Calderone/VMA post, but I was going on too little sleep, and I totally missed it. Guess what people are accusing Lady Gaga of NOW? Ripping off another artist. SHOCK!! Only this time Gaga isn’t ripping off Madonna or Bette Midler (or Christina Aguilera!). This time Gaga is being accused of ripping off an iconic 1984 Grammy performance by Annie Lennox/The Eurythmics.
Now, first of all – I was alive in 1984, but I was much too little to watch the Grammys. And while I have never heard of this performance before today, I have to say that if Kelly Bleedin’ Osbourne can reference it within minutes, it’s probably very well-known. That’s right – Kelly O. was the one to point it out on Twitter:
[From Kelly’s Twitter]
The clip that she referenced (below) is of The Eurythmics’ 1984 Grammy performance, in which Annie Lennox was dressed up in her drag kind gear, and she looked a bit like Elvis and Johnny Cash. Isn’t it funny that when Gaga does the drag king thing, she just looks like a really busted, strung out Adam Goldberg? Here’s the video from 1984:
*sigh*
I love Annie Lennox. So, so much. Amazing voice. And that song still sounds so fresh and amazing today, right? Okay, enough gushing. Once again, here’s Gaga’s performance from Sunday night:
I won’t judge you for going back up to Annie Lennox and watching that performance over and over. Annie is amazing.
Now, as for the complaint that Gaga just jacked Annie’s shtick… I don’t know. Just because Gaga does the drag king thing, does that mean she’s copying everybody who has done the drag king thing, forever and always. Of course I’m concerned about the very similar wiglets, and the similarly unfortunate sideburns (yikes). I think Gaga is a lot like Beyonce in these kinds of situations – both Bey and Gaga pay attention to what other artists do, what’s new and what’s iconic throughout pop music, and they both copy and rework. Madonna did too, come to think of it. Whatever.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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