Born This Way

This song about love and equality is the lead single and title track from Lady Gaga's second album. It was written and co-produced by Gaga with the help of Interscope producer/songwriter Fernando Garibay and Chicago producer and mixtape specialist DJ White Shadow.

Gaga discussed the track in an interview with Billboard magazine. "It's very literal. I said, 'I want to write my freedom record. I want to write my this-is-who-the-f--k-I-am anthem,' but I don't want it to be hidden in poetic wizardry and metaphors. I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue because I think, especially in today's music, everything gets kind of washy sometimes and the message gets hidden in the lyrical play. Harkening back to the early '90s, when Madonna, En Vogue, Whitney Houston and TLC were making very empowering music for women and the gay community and all kind of disenfranchised communities, the lyrics and the melodies were very poignant and very gospel and very spiritual and I said, 'That's the kind of record I need to make.' That's the record that's going to shake up the industry. It's not about the track. It's not about the production. It's about the song. Anyone could sing 'Born This Way.' It could've been anyone."

DJ White Shadow (real name is Paul Blair) told Billboard magazine about recording this underdog anthem with the New York superstar: "Gaga was listening to my mixtapes after someone she knew heard me DJ in a club in L.A. One day Gaga e-mailed me and asked me if I made my own beats. I said yes, sent her some, and she hit me back, this time on the phone, asking if I wanted to work with her on some stuff. I said okay." "She made it," he added. "She came up with the idea, she wrote it. She is a genius. We recorded it around the world, on the road, in whatever was available."