On the stroke of midnight, Lady Gaga, 24, issued a Twitter message and photo to promote her upcoming album, Born This Way.
To ensure that her message, “The song 2 13 11 the record 5 23 11,” is in the New Year’s spotlight, the pop singer,24, has included a skin-baring black and white photograph by fashion photographer Nick Knight.
In the image, Gaga has her back to the camera, hair swinging wildly, while she sports nothing but a distressed leather bomber-style jacket. The back of the coat is adorned with sequins spelling out the album title Born This Way along with the outline of a unicorn. Her bare bottom juts out from under the jacket, with her left thigh featuring another unicorn image—this time a tattoo. One tries to imagine public reaction to a male pop star like Justin Bieber or Usher doing the same thing.
Having progressed from meat dress to rump of Gaga, the singer implied the single will be released February 13 and the album on May 23. She also included some of the lyrics on her Twitter page: “Don’t hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you’re set. I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way.” Fans can read the message here.
Lending her vocal talent elsewhere, Gaga paired up with Elton John to record an original duet for the soundtrack to the forthcoming animated Disney feature film Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, titled Hello, Hello, is also scheduled for release in February 2011.