Lady Gaga is 'copying Serbian pop star'

That's according to the Serbian trash media. In a sense of triumphal and parochical chest-beating that they are the source and avanguard of pop creativity (that makes them 'good'), Serbian tabloids are claiming that it's no coincidence that photos of Lady Gaga dressed as a man that recently appeared in Japanese Vogue is further evidence that the alleged hermaphrodite is copying local 'skandalmajstor', gay icon and pop star Jelena Karleuša's style. Here are the photos for you to decide:

Just in case you are wondering as the look between the two is so uncanny, Jelena Karleuša (commonly referred to as 'JK' in ex-Yugoslavia) is on the left, and 'Lejdi Gaga' is on the right. Honestly, the Serb press obviously has never seen iconic images of Marlene Dietrich before. So much for 'originality'.

The comparison between JK and LG was made earlier this year by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, only he had it the other way around from the Serbian gutter press on who's copying whom. That Perez Hilton was blogging about Serbian pop stars was highly reported in the Serb press, again with a grand sense of achievement and Western recognition this supposedly entails, though the tabloid journos didn't seem to notice that Hilton was not full of praise for the local star.

So who is JK then? Born in 1978 in Belgrade, she was groomed by her showbiz manager mother Divna into becoming a Turbofolk star, releasing her first song in 1994 at the tender age of 16. Showing a maturity beyond her teenage years, she quickly churned out some moderately successful records in the mid-90s. By her third album in 1997, she set her perennial style of often bizarre haircuts (she had a period when she had canary yellow short hair), provocative stage costumes and a pathological sense for lying, showboating and vicious attacks on other singers. She has built her musical career almost exclusively through cover versions of mainly Greek and Turkish pop songs, though recently she has pillaged further afield by singing Bollywood, Arabic, Israeli and even Uzbek hits with Serbian lyrics - overall, very lazy, cynical and ultimately cheap path to success, and hardly the sign of creative originality. A media astute person who rarely is out of the limelight, she is equally reviled and adored, and to some she's the personification of all things bad about Serbian society in the noughties, much like Ceca was of the 90s. Her marriage to the Bojan Karić, son of Serbia's richest man, in 2004 only lasted 4 months. She is now married to former Werder Bremen, now Portsmouth footballer Duško Tolić, who is father of her two daughters, Atina and Nika, who were born a year apart on the same day. An example of JK's crass need for media attention is that she forwarded photos of her daughter then 6 month old daughter Atina on a laptop computer which JK claimed she had bought for her so she could familiarise herself with technology as young as possible. JK's latest crowing glory was the staging of a spectacular, high-budget concert in Belgrade, much to the delight of her fans, and especially her large gay following - the photo above makes that obvious.

One thing I do have to say is that she is no dumb blonde, as she displays in this interview for Al Jazeera

Lady Gaga and JK do share many similarities. All things aside, they both entertain and that's what we want. So let's enjoy this Friday evening with JK singing one of her hits (and one of my favourite songs) at her Belgrade concert this year. Enjoy!