TORONTO — Kanye West can rest assured that new tourmate Lady Gaga has got his back.
Gaga said on Monday that it was unfair for fans to judge West for his onstage confrontation with Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month.
“I can tell you that he’s very sorry, and he made a mistake, and he knows it,” Gaga told The Canadian Press over the telephone from Virginia, where the personable pop star munched on a bowl of cereal.
“But at the end of the day, he is a pioneer in hip-hop music, and he changed what hip-hop music means. And I think that it’s time for everyone to kind of take their heads out of the newspapers and remember that, in truth, Kanye’s making most of the music we hear on the radio today.”
“He has a tremendous effect on everybody’s lives and I think it’s unfair to judge a person by one thing that they said.”
West touched off his latest award-show controversy after Swift beat out Beyonce and other acts to win best female video at the VMAs for her hit “You Belong With Me.”
Just after the 19-year-old country phenom approached the microphone to accept the award, West hopped onstage, grabbed the mike and declared that Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” was one of the “best videos of all time.” Swift didn’t finish her speech until later, when Beyonce invited her onstage.
Though Gaga has offered her support to West now, what was her reaction in the moment when West wrested the mike away?
“It was: ’Oh jeez,”’ she said.