Lady Gaga thinks her fans need to take action against Malaysia radio stations that have censored the lyrics to her hit “Born This Way.”
“You must do everything that you can if you want to be liberated by your society,” the singer said during an interview at Google’s California headquarters this week (in which she also called “Friday” singer Rebecca Black “a genius”). Watch below. “You must call, you must not stop, you must protest peacefully.”
Radio stations in the Muslim-majority country garble the lyrics: “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track, baby.”
The nation’s largest radio operator, AMP Radio Networks (which owns 8 stations, including an English-language one that reaches 1.5 million listeners), told the Associated Press earlier this month the words were garbled because of government restrictions against songs that could violate “good taste or decency or [are] offensive to public feeling.”
“The particular lyrics in ‘Born This Way’ may be considered as offensive when viewed against Malaysia’s social and religious observances,” the company said in a statement to The AP. “The issue of being gay, lesbian or [bisexual] is still considered as a ‘taboo’ by general Malaysians.”
Stations could be fined $16,000, and face other penalties from the government.
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