Quick to judge?

So, I've been ignoring this whole Lady Gaga rise to fame thing. I'm sure I've been exposed to lots of her music but I only recognize that Just Dance song and I don't particularly care for it. Mostly I've been vaguely concerned for this Lady Gaga character. Every time I've seen her in the past year I've wondered why she hates her face so much that she makes such extraordinary efforts to hide it. Is it a crazy sense of showmanship? Is she trying to retain some sort on anonymity or is she simply full of self loathing? Frankly these were such vague thoughts I never looked into trying to get answers to them.

I finally caught an interview/performance with Lady Gaga on The Ellen Degeneres show and I must say I was impressed. She was, not surprisingly, an outcast in high school and claims that her wild wardrobe choices are about making her fans (who are often the outsiders) feel less alone and to illustrate how they should embrace their uniqueness. Of course, that could be a load but I kind of got the feeling she was being sincere. I can't remember the last time I thought a pop star was being sincere.

As for any singing talent, I assumed she had none because her music is synthesizer heavy and that is typically a red flag warning "No Talent Zone". I couldn't have been more mistaken. She's not only got a good voice but one with a pretty cool tone to it. I'm still not sure I'd call myself a fan but I sure liked her performance on the show. She wrote the song for her dad who needed open heart surgery but had sort of thrown in the towel on his illness. Lady Gaga (or whatever her name is) wrote the song on the road as a way to beg him to get the surgery as quickly as possible. He did.

I immediately liked the song. Above all I was stunned to realize that as I watched her performance I felt like I was watching a young, female Elton John. It's not just the piano and the getup either. Seriously, did Elton and Bernie Taupin write this thing? I'm a huge fan of early Elton John so I don't say that lightly. Take a look and let me know what you think.