Madonna addressed similarities between her 1989 smash "Express Yourself" and Lady Gaga's recent hit "Born This Way" in a new interview with Newsweek. "I thought, this is a wonderful way to redo my song," she said, recalling the first time she heard the hit early last year. "I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was . . . interesting."

Madonna's comments, though polite and essentially complimentary, certainly seem to undermine Gaga's songwriting and achievements. Nevertheless, the star emphasized in another recent interview on the BBC's Graham Norton Show that she feels a close kinship with Mother Monster. "When I first saw her I was really impressed by her. She was cool," she told Norton earlier this week. "She did remind me of me back in the day."

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