Born This Way (song)

"Born This Way" is a single by American pop singer Lady Gaga. It was released on February 11, 2011. The song premiered on KIIS-FM's American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest on February 11th. The single was produced by Mexican music producer Fernando Garibay as well as DJ White Shadow and Gaga herself. The song is the lead single for Gaga's 2nd studio album Born This Way which was released on May 23, 2011. The single's music video was filmed on January 22, 2011. Gaga performed the song live at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011, two days after the song's release.

"Born This Way"
Single by Lady Gaga
from Born This Way"
Written	February 2010
Released	February 11, 2011 (2011-02-11)
Recorded	2010
Genre	Dance-pop electropop synthpop
Length	4:20
Label	Streamline Kon Live Interscope
Songwriter(s)	Stefani Germanotta Jeppe Laursen Paul Blair Fernando Garibay
Producer(s)	Lady Gaga Jeppe Laursen Fernando Garibay DJ White Shadow
Lady Gaga singles chronology
""Alejandro" (2010) Born This Way ""Judas" (2011)
"Born This Way" at YouTube

Cover art

While accepting the Video of the Year award (for "Bad Romance") at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga, after tearfully announcing her forthcoming album's title, sang a few lines from the song: "I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes; I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way." Given as a Christmas "gift" to her fans at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day 2011, she announced (via Twitter) that May 23, 2011 and February 13, 2011 would see the release of Born This Way and this song respectively. The song, however, was released on February 11, two days prior to its original release, after revealing this on her Twitter page on February 7. Prior to its release in late January, Gaga (via Twitter) released the full set of lyrics to "Born This Way" onto the Internet.

Charts

On February 16, 2011, Billboard announced that "Born This Way" entered at the number-one position of the Billboard Hot 100. The song became the 1000th number-one single in the chart's history and the nineteenth song to debut at number one. The song also reached number one in Australia and Canada and reached the top three in the United Kingdom.

Weekly charts Chart performance for "Born This Way" Chart (2011) Peak position Australia (ARIA) 1 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 75) 1 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders) 1 Bulgaria 1 Canada (Canadian Hot 100) 1 Denmark (Tracklisten) 2 Finland (Suomen virallinen lista) 1 France (SNEP) 2 Germany 1 Ireland (IRMA) 1 Japan (Billboard Japan Hot 100) 1 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) 1 New Zealand (RIANZ) 1 Norway (VG-lista) 2 Illegal chart entered Portugal 7 Spain (PROMUSICAE) 1 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) 1 Switzerland (Media Control AG) 1 UK Singles (OCC) 3 US Billboard Hot 100 1 US Pop Songs (Billboard) 1 US Hot Dance Club Songs (Billboard) 1

Year-end charts Chart (2011) Rank Australia (ARIA) 8 Canada (Canadian Hot 100) 6 Germany (Offizielle Charts) 17 New Zealand (RMNZ) 14 UK Singles Chart (OCC) 14 US Billboard Hot 100 18 US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard) 28 Certifications Region Certification Sales/shipments United Kingdom (BPI) 2× Platinum 1,200,000 United States (RIAA) 6× Platinum 6,000,000 *sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Critical reception

Critics positively reviewed the song, though it faced criticism for having similarities with Madonna's 1989 single "Express Yourself".

Born This Way (song) Media

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  Nick Knight (pictured in 2015) shot the song's cover artwork, as well as its music video.

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  Indian music producer duo Salim and Sulaiman Merchant created a Bollywood remix of "Born This Way".

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  Madonna performing a mashup of her 1989 single "Express Yourself" and "Born This Way" during the MDNA Tour (2012). "Born This Way" was compared by some critics to Madonna's song, which Gaga said was completely unintentional.

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  Canadian model Rick Genest appeared in the video.

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  The music video for "Born This Way" featured several references to Greek and Roman mythology, notably Janus (pictured), which was seen at the beginning of the video.

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  Gaga performing "Born This Way" on The Monster Ball Tour, which was added to the setlist for its 2011 dates. The same general attire and choreography were used as for the Grammy performance.

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  The performance of "Born This Way" at the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards ended with Gaga and her dancers' hands put up in paws, a signature move for many of the song's live presentations.

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  Gaga performing "Born This Way" at her Super Bowl LI halftime show set. It was noted for being the first time someone referenced the LGBT community during a halftime show of the sport event.

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  The song has been covered by multiple artists, including "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied it in his single, "Perform This Way".