The Lebanese government seized boxes full of Lady Gaga’s very anticipated album “Born This Way” at the Beirut airport last week. Authorities say that this album could be offensive to the country’s Christian population.
Pictures of Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden
The new album, “Born This Way” has a lot of Christian references and imagery. One of Lady Gaga’s unique qualities is her way of incorporating her Catholic background into her provocative music. One song from the album, “Judas,” was banned from Lebanese radios for its portrayal of the Bible and sexual lyrics.
The citizens of Lebanon have many different religions which include Islam and many Christian denominations.
The Gaga fans of Lebanon are hoping to compromise with the office of censorship so that only the offensive material is edited out of the album. Lady Gaga has a large fan population in Lebanon, and the CD sale will produce a lot of money for the country.
Many of the Lebanese citizens are outraged with the idea that the album is not being released to the country. Dyala Badran, a college graduate of Lebanon, told the Los Angeles Times that the “Lebanese authorities cannot form a functional government, but manage to ban Lady Gaga’s album, due to religious sensitivities. I think they need to get their priorities straight.”
It is hard to say what the final decision on the album release will be. Christian elders are going to be weighing in on “Born This Way,” but, in the meantime, the Lebanese are trying to work their way around the system to hear Lady Gaga’s new music. Citizens are downloading it off of the internet, or trying to use inside connections with record stores so that the owners can try to get the albums for the customers.
