![\"Lady](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/lady-gaga-madonna-2009-billboard-1800.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrom enemies to frenemies to friends, here’s everything we know about the pop icons’ gossip-fueled rivalry.<\/p>\n
\t4\/7\/2026\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLady Gaga and Madonna attend the Marc Jacobs 2010 Spring Fashion Show at the NY State Armory on September 14, 2009 in New York City.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDimitrios Kambouris\/WireImage for Marc Jacobs<\/p>\n
\n\tThey were born to express themselves.\u00a0And over the course of a yearslong feud with one another, Lady Gaga<\/a> and Madonna<\/a> did exactly that.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2011, a disagreement between two of pop\u2019s biggest stars began when Gaga released her LGBTQ+ anthem \u201cBorn This Way.\u201d Madonna fans were quick to point out the track\u2019s melodic and lyrical similarities to Madonna\u2019s 1989 classic \u201cExpress Yourself.\u201d It didn\u2019t take long for Madge herself to join in on the conversation, with the Queen of Pop going on public record the next year and calling \u201cBorn This Way\u201d \u201creductive.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd thus, years of public rivalry between the two was ignited.<\/p>\n \n\tBut everything is not what it seems \u2014 not even clear and publicly made digs lobbed at one another. In the years following the OG disagreement, Lady Gaga and Madonna have gone on to both throw a few verbal punches at one another and extend olive branches to their rival. Like most petty disagreements \u2014especially ones clearly stoked by the drama-driven celebrity gossip machine \u2014 the feud between the two artists eventually calmed down. Seven years after it began, the drama was officially declared dead when the stars posed for a pic together at Madonna\u2019s exclusive Oscars afterparty in 2018.<\/p>\n \n\tNow, 15 years after the initial dispute, Lady Gaga and Madonna are rumored<\/a> to be collaborating on a new song for the Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack. While we don\u2019t know the truth yet, we do know that Gaga (with Doechii) is featured on the soundtrack with the original song \u201cRunway\u201d<\/a> and Madonna\u2019s 1990 smash \u201cVogue\u201d appeared in the original movie and has soundtracked much of the sequel\u2019s pre-release promo<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tAs we impatiently await to see if a collaboration is real or just another rumor added to all the gossip surrounding these two pop legends, Billboard is taking a looking back at the timeline of Lady Gaga and Madonna\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n \t2011: Lady Gaga Releases \u201cBorn This Way,\u201d and\u00a0Fans Point Out Similarities to Madonna\u2019s \u201cExpress Yourself\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat a completely ridiculous thing to even question me about,\u201d Lady Gaga said of the accusations during\u00a0a 2011\u00a0NME\u00a0interview<\/a>. \u201cI will look you in your eyes and tell you that I am not dumb enough or moronic enough to think that you are dumb enough or moronic enough not to see that I would have stolen a melody. If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It\u2019s the same one that\u2019s been in disco music for the last 50 years. Just because I\u2019m the first f\u2014ing artist in 25 years to think of putting it on top 40 radio, it doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m a plagiarist, it means that I\u2019m f\u2014ing smart. Sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \t2012: Madonna Disses \u201cBorn This Way\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe following year, during a 2012 interview with\u00a0ABC News,<\/a> Madonna made it clear that she was unamused by Gaga\u2019s \u201cBorn This Way.\u201d\u00a0\u201cIt feels\u00a0reductive,\u201d she said. When asked if that was a good or bad thing, the singer simply replied with \u201clook it up,\u201d as she\u00a0took\u00a0a sip of her tea.<\/p>\n \t2012: Madonna Mashes \u201cBorn This Way\u201d With \u201cExpress Yourself\u201d on Tour<\/p>\n \n\tMadonna continued to comment on the perceived similarities between her \u201cExpress Yourself\u201d and Gaga\u2019s \u201cBorn This Way\u201d when she performed a mash-up of the two singles on stage on her MDNA Tour. <\/p>\n \n\tIn the middle of her song, Madonna and her dancers broke out into the \u201cBorn This Way\u201d choreography while the pop star sings the song\u2019s chorus before going back into \u201cExpress Yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to HuffPost<\/a>, while on the same tour, Madonna made a dig at Gaga during the St. Paul, Minn., stop before telling the audience that she invited Gaga to join her on stage for a duet. Gaga allegedly rejected the invitation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI have the best fans in the whole world. So take that, Lady Gaga!\u201d Madonna said. \u201cYou know, I invited her onstage to sing with me. But, she turned me down. It\u2019s okay. I\u2019ve been rejected before. It builds a little character.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWatch a video of Madonna performing the \u201cExpress Yourself\u201d x \u201cBorn This Way\u201d mash-up on the MDNA Tour below.<\/p>\n \t2015: Madonna Temporarily Ends the Pop Icon War<\/p>\n \n\tMadonna later squashed the feud\u00a0in\u00a0a 2015\u00a0Rolling Stone\u00a0interview<\/a>, outlining that no one can really take her place in the pop music world. \u201cThe only time I ever criticized Lady Gaga was when I felt like she blatantly ripped off one of my songs,\u201d Madonna\u00a0told\u00a0Rolling Stone. \u201cIt\u2019s got nothing to do with \u2018she\u2019s taking my crown\u2019 or \u2018she\u2019s in some space of mine.\u2019 She has her thing. I do think she\u2019s a very talented singer and songwriter. It was just that one issue.\u201d<\/p>\n \t2015: Madonna, Lady Gaga & Katy Perry Get Cozy at the Met\u00a0Gala<\/p>\n \n\tFashion heals! <\/p>\n \n\tJust a few months after the Rolling Stone interview, Madonna cozied up<\/a> with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry at the Met Gala. The three pop icons posed together for a glamorous pic at fashion\u2019s biggest night and Madonna even shared the photo in a now-deleted Instagram post. \u201cGirls night out\u2026\u2026\u2026. Kissing the Ring\u2026\u2026..Finally!#metball,\u201c the \u201cVogue\u201d singer wrote in the post\u2019s caption. <\/p>\n \t2016: Gaga Says She\u2019s Nothing Like Madonna<\/p>\n \n\tGaga responded\u00a0to claims of similarities between her and Madonna\u00a0in an\u00a0interview with\u00a0Zane Lowe on Beats 1<\/a>\u00a0before the release of her\u00a0Joanne\u00a0album that year. \u201cMadonna and I are very different,\u201d Gaga said in the interview. \u201cJust say, \u2018We\u2019re very different.\u2019 I wouldn\u2019t make that comparison at all and I don\u2019t mean to disrespect Madonna, she\u2019s a nice lady, and she\u2019s had a fantastic huge career, biggest pop star of all time. But I play a lot of instruments. I write all my own music. I spend hours a day in the studio. I\u2019m a producer. I\u2019m a writer. What I do is different.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGaga also tweeted<\/a> about Madonna\u2019s powerful speech as\u00a0Billboard\u2019s\u00a02016 Woman of the Year\u00a0about overcoming adversity as a woman in the music industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t2017: Gaga Addresses\u00a0Madonna Feud in Netflix Documentary\u00a0Gaga: Five Foot Two<\/p>\n \n\tIn her 2017 documentary, Gaga blatantly addressed the longstanding feud. \u201cI\u2019m Italian and from New York, so if I have a problem, I\u2019m gonna tell you to your face,\u201d she said in the film.\u00a0\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t look me in the eye and tell me that I was reductive or whatever. Telling me you think I\u2019m a piece of sh\u2013 through the media? It\u2019s like a guy passing me a note through his friend.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tStill, she claimed to admire her pop predecessor.\u00a0\u201cSo the thing with me and Madonna, for example, is that I admired her always,\u201d Gaga said.\u00a0\u201cAnd I still admire her, no matter what she might think of me. I just want Madonna to push me up against the wall and kiss me and tell me I\u2019m a piece of sh\u2013.\u201d<\/p>\n \t2018: Lady Gaga, Madonna & 100 People in the Room<\/p>\n \n\tThe feud\u00a0temporarily died down, only to be revisited in 2018. Footage surfaced of Gaga repeating the same line during\u00a0the press tour for\u00a0A Star Is Born: \u201cThere can be 100 people in the room, and 99 don\u2019t believe in you, but\u00a0you just need one to believe in you,\u201d Mother Monster said in various different ways<\/a> at press events that year.<\/p>\n \n\tThe overused\u00a0phrase\u00a0grabbed everyone\u2019s attention, including Madonna\u2019s. In an Instagram Story, the \u201cLike a Prayer\u201d star posted a video of a 1989 interview in which she\u00a0says, \u201cIf there\u2019s 100 people in the room and 99 people said they liked it, I only remember the one person who didn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t2019: Gaga & Madonna Hug it Out After the Oscars<\/p>\n \n\tIf winning an Oscar wasn\u2019t exciting enough, Lady Gaga was able to publicly squash her longest-standing feud with Madonna the same night.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2019, Mother Monster and the Queen of Pop were photographed cuddling at Guy Oseary and Madonna\u2019s annual Oscars afterparty. Gaga stopped by the famous bash after winning the Academy Award for best original song for \u201cShallow\u201d \u2014 her first Oscar \u2014 earlier in the evening. Photographer JR captured the celebratory embrace between the two stars for TIME. Gaga\u2019s award is featured in the photo as she clutches it in her hands and Madonna tenderly holds Gaga\u2019s smiling face.<\/p>\n \n\tSee the legendary photo below. <\/p>\n \t2019: Madonna Says She and Gaga Were \u201cNever Enemies\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMaybe the real feud was the friends we made along the way?<\/p>\n \n\tIn a May 2019 interview with British Vogue<\/a>, Madonna shared that she loves the idea of paving the way for future generations of young female pop stars but that the celebrity gossip train often gets in the way. She then named Gaga as an example of how gossip can stoke a fire that should\u2019ve never been lit to begin with.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPeople got very excited about [the thought of Lady Gaga and myself as] enemies, when we never were enemies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \n\tMadonna believes that the \u201crivalry\u201d was just another example of society pitting successful women against one another. <\/p>\n \t2023: Gaga Sends Madonna Love via TikTok Comments<\/p>\n \n\tGaga continued the love train in 2023 when she left a comment <\/a>on Madonna\u2019s TikTok page. The Queen of Pop shared a video thanking fans for their \u201clove and support\u201d after hitting major sales numbers for her Celebration Tour.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t take any of this for granted,\u201d Madonna said in the TikTok. \u201cI feel like the luckiest girl in the world. And I\u2019m so grateful for all of your support.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tGaga responded to Madonna\u2019s heartfelt message with a sweet comment: \u201cWe love you M.\u201d<\/p>\n \t2025: Lady Gaga Names Madonna in List of Inspirations<\/p>\n \n\tFrom one innovator to another, Lady Gaga shared that Madonna was one of her inspirations. <\/p>\n \n\tWhile accepting the Innovator Award at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards, Lady Gaga named some of the artists who came before her who paved the way for her artistry and stardom. The Queen of Pop was notably included in the list.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here without my inspirations. David Bowie, Grace Jones, Carole King, Elton John, Lady Starlight,\u201d Gaga says after sharing what innovation means to her. \u201cMadonna, Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington, Cher and, of course, my dear friend Tony Bennett, who taught me to embrace the classics but never be bound by them.\u201d<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe Daily\t\t<\/p>\n A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry<\/p>\n \t\tBy providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>.
\n\tSign Up<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tWe use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. \/\/ This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From enemies to frenemies to friends, here’s everything we know about the pop icons’ gossip-fueled rivalry. 4\/7\/2026 Lady…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,19715,3295,157,3296,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-369275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-feuds","10":"tag-genre-pop","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-music-news","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}