Lady Gaga reveals inspiration behind Born This Way as world celebrates 10 years of her seminal album
Lady Gaga celebrated the tenth anniversary of Born This Way in West Hollywood. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty)
Lady Gaga has revealed the inspiration behind her seminal album Born This Way and its empowering title track while celebrating the record’s 10th anniversary.
The singer was awarded the key to the City of West Hollywood and 23 May was declared “Born This Way Day” at an event on Sunday (23 May) to celebrate the towering impact of her pro-equality anthem and its accompanying album.
“Thank you for encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud,” West Hollywood mayor Lindsey P Horvath told Lady Gaga at a celebratory event in the city on Sunday (23 May).
A giant “Born This Way” street painting bearing the album’s title was also unveiled at the event, with Gaga posing for photos surrounded by adoring fans.
Writing on social media after the event, Lady Gaga revealed that the album and its title track were inspired by Carl Bean, a gay Black religious activist “who preached, sung and wrote about being ‘Born This Way.'”
https://twitter.com/ladygaga/status/1396651208329228291
“Thank you for decades of relentless love, bravery, and a reason to sing. So we can all feel joy, because we deserve joy,” Gaga wrote on Twitter after sharing photos of the West Hollywood event.
“Because we deserve the right to inspire tolerance, acceptance, and freedom for all.”
Born This Way cemented Lady Gaga’s position as an LGBT+ icon
Lady Gaga had already amassed an enormous LGBT+ fanbase when she released “Born This Way” in 2011, which features the lyric: “No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgender life, I’m on the right track baby, I was born to survive.”
The song and its accompanying album, released on 23 May, 2011, cemented Gaga’s position as an LGBT+ icon.
That song led to Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta teaming up to found the Born This Way Foundation in 2012, which works to support the mental health of young people in a bid to “make the world kinder and braver”.
Gaga’s appearance at the tenth anniversary celebrations comes after she flew back to the United States from Italy, where she spent recent months filming her upcoming film House of Gucci alongside Adam Driver.
The film – due for release later this year – tells the story of a real-life murder that rocked the Gucci family in 1995.
