Nothing says “Happy Easter” better than a love song to the man who betrayed Jesus.
Just in time for the holiday, Lady Gaga’s new single, “Judas,” leaked on the Internet last week, and is already creating controversy.
With lyrics like “I wanna love you, but something is pulling me away from you. Jesus is my virtue, Judas is the devil I cling to,” and “I’m just a holy fool. Oh baby he’s so cruel but I’m still in love with Judas baby,” it is obvious why Catholics and Protestants alike are upset.
Regularly dressing as a nun and using religious imagery in her live shows, for her to release an ode to Judas from the viewpoint of Mary Magdalene is not surprising. In fact, it is almost expected for Gaga to do something like this.
Some are extremely upset over the song, such as Catholic League President Bill Donahue, but Gaga defends the song and even claims to have received the lyrics and melody from the Almighty himself.
In an interview with NME Magazine, Gaga said she “feels honestly that God sent me those lyrics and that melody. When you feel a message to give to the world and people are shooting arrows through it, there’s no way for something that pure to be wrong.”
After hearing her say something like that, the question becomes her intent. Does she think she is a modern-day prophet? Or is she just purposely making controversial music that appears to be anti-Christian to get even more publicity?
I think the answer is the latter.
Appearing anti-Christian is familiar territory for Lady Gaga and female pop stars from years past. From Madonna’s use of Catholic imagery in her “Like a Prayer” video and tours to Sinead O’Connor tearing a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live, it would be easy to say that Lady Gaga is using this formula to get her music to a wider audience.
And in a way she is. But the fact that she says she believes she received the lyrics from God is the strange part.
This all seems like a part of a plan though.
The fact of the matter is, Lady Gaga knows how to sell records and fill stadiums for her wildly popular tour. Keep buzz around your name and your music and you will never be out of the spotlight—it is that simple.
So is “Judas” shocking or surprising at all? A little shocking but not so surprising. Will it get her more air-time and publicity to reach an even wider audience than she has in the past? Absolutely.
