Lady Gaga Takes On The Country Music Market

Lady Gaga was “born this way,” y’all.

The platinum pop star, who makes startling career moves for breakfast, has created a country-fied, version of her latest anthem to liberation, “Born This Way.” Gaga debuted the “Country Road Version” of her song last night at midnight via her Twitter account. The modified single features slide guitar, harmonica, and mandolin, and updated lyrics like “If I wanna make it country, baby, then it’s OK, ’cause I was born, I was born, I was born this way.”

The original version of the track, which has been #1 on the pop charts for six weeks,  initially garnered criticism for sounding like several Madonna songs, particularly “Express Yourself” and “Vogue.”

Gaga has stated that she’d like to be known for her songwriting; “Born This Way” initially debuted as a set of tweeted lyrics. She started her career writing hits for artists like Britney Spears and New Kids On The Block, and reportedly penned two tracks for Jennifer Lopez’s upcoming LP.

Of her highly anticipated Born This Way album, Gaga tells Google: “There’s really no song on the album that can’t be played at a piano acoustically. It’s all about the songwriting… It’s all about my abilities as a writer, from a melodic perspective I co-produced every song on the album, so sonically it just smells like me – if that makes any sense! I guess what I’m trying to say is, in my opinion, all good music can be played at a piano and still sound like a hit.”

What do you make of the Gaga’s new country direction? Let us know in the comments.