Born This Way Songwriting Credits by Lady Gaga

Born This Way is the second official studio album by Lady Gaga, released in May 2011 on Interscope/Streamline Records and produced by RedOne, Fernando Garibay, DJ White Shadow, and Gaga herself, Gaga's most explicitly political album, centering LGBTQ+ identity and acceptance as its primary lyrical themes, and a statement of intent about her role as a queer cultural icon that she had been building since the debut. Gaga wrote or co-wrote all her own material; the album deploys rock, heavy metal, gospel, and industrial electronic elements alongside the electropop of the first two records, resulting in a wider tonal range than any previous release and drawing comparisons to artists as varied as Queen, Bruce Springsteen, and Giorgio Moroder. The title track was released as the lead single in February 2011, debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after selling over one million digital copies in its first week, at the time the fastest-selling single in iTunes history, and spent six weeks at the top position. Born This Way debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with over 1.1 million first-week sales, the largest first-week sales for any album since Eminem's Recovery in 2010. The album generated controversy over the title track's resemblance to Madonna's 'Express Yourself,' a comparison Gaga addressed publicly and Madonna acknowledged obliquely, in an episode that highlighted Gaga's positioning as a successor to Madonna's tradition of politicized mainstream pop.