There always a certain pattern in the defenses of celebs when they're called out on their "borrowing", and it's very petty. They, at best, acknowledge they made a "homage" to the original artist, but follow that up by spending much time saying they "actually, really were inspired by completely other things", as to say the homage is more of a coincidence and that the original artist must think pretty highly of him/herself to think his/her work got stolen.
Beyonce
- Obviously "borrows" from the choreography and mise-en-scene of De Keersmaecker.
- Her response:
"I was also paying tribute to the film, 'Funny Face' with the legendary Audrey Hepburn. My biggest inspirations were the 60's, the 70's, Brigitte Bardot, Andy Warhol, Twiggy and Diana Ross. The video already has close to two million views so hopefully the fans will look at all the tributes and then discover Audrey Hepburn, Warhol, Bardot, 'Rosas danst Rosas' and all the works that inspired me and shaped this video."
Lady Gaga
- Obviously "borrows" lots of elements from Express Yourself and some other songs from Madonna in her song Born This Way.
- Her response:
"I want to say thank you to Whitney Houston, When I wrote 'Born This Way' I imagined you were singing it because I wasn't secure enough to see myself as a superstar. I cant tell you how much I listened to Whitney growing up. She was my vocal idol for so many years. I sort of planned to thank her a long time ago, at some point. I said, If I ever win a Grammy Im gonna thank Whitney so I did.
I knew another recent example of this, but it slips my mind right now. There's no dignity in these explanations at all. I wonder if there are legal reasons for this. Like their lawyers urging them to be vague about the whole thing, and definitely not outright admit to borrowing.
