EJ's Thoughts: Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' Gives Her 'Mass Appeal,' Experts Say

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' Gives Her 'Mass Appeal,' Experts Say

Radio programming directors say new song is getting 'mad love' already.
By Gil Kaufman

Lady Gaga
Photo: Getty Images

Given the months of anticipation, it's hard to believe that Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" would live up to expectations when it premiered. The towering, club-remix-ready anthem in support of outliers, outcasts and proud freaks of all stripes debuted on radio early Friday morning (February 11), and as with just about all things Gaga, the response was immediate.

After hearing it very early Friday morning, Julie Pilat, the assistant program director and music director at Los Angeles' KIIS FM dubbed the song a "one-listen record." In an e-mail sent soon after the song debuted on her station (hours before the scheduled 6 a.m. ET debut on the East Coast), Pilat wrote that the song, "sounds incredible on KIIS. It was exciting to have the Gaga drop and it be a HUGE event as it world-premiered on radio."

Pilat said that just after spinning it for the first time, she started monitoring fan reaction on Facebook and Twitter. "It was fun seeing so many people stay up for the premiere," she said of the anticipation for the song, which had the feel of a major movie franchise opening or the first day of iPad sales.

"As soon as it hit the air, monsters were posting and giving Gaga mad love," she said. "I saw everything from 'awesome,' to 'best song ever' and 'Dying — think I need to go to the emergency room!' It's out, people love it, next stop Grammys!"

Kid Kelly, vice president of pop programming for Sirius/XM satellite radio, echoed Pilat's excitement, saying the song has been in rotation every 70 minutes since it debuted on SiriusXM Hits 1 on Friday morning. "When I first heard it this morning, I thought it was more mainstream and not the same Lady Gaga we first heard when she hit the scene," he said. "I thought it was definitely her mainstream, uptempo, pop-dance song that will make her a mass-appeal artist."

While Gaga is already a worldwide star, with album sales in the millions, Kelly said unlike other Gaga tunes that started out at pop radio and eventually migrated over to the Hot AC (adult contemporary) format, he predicted that "Born This Way" is likely to live on the latter even longer than on pop radio thanks to its wider appeal. "It's just a bit dancier, with a big, fat hook."

For now, the song is an "event" type of tune for the satellite network's pop station, but Kelly said he could see it crossing over to other stations such as The Blend (described as "Lite pop hits") and several other stations on the network over time.

MTV was also flooded with comments about the song, including one from Darren, who wrote, "I love my life, I love this record, and mi amore vole fe yah!," while Alex wrote "AMAZING!!!!!!!!" But not everyone felt it lived up to the hype, as commenter Journey put it, "Do I think it's her best? No, but it delivers a powerful message and in the meantime still happens to be very fun."

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