A Complete Timeline of Lady Gaga & Madonna’s Rivalry & Reconciliation

They were born to express themselves. And over the course of a yearslong feud with one another, Lady Gaga and Madonna did exactly that.

In 2011, a disagreement between two of pop’s biggest stars began when Gaga released her LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way.” Madonna fans were quick to point out the track’s melodic and lyrical similarities to Madonna’s 1989 classic “Express Yourself.” It didn’t take long for Madge herself to join in on the conversation, with the Queen of Pop going on public record the next year and calling “Born This Way” “reductive.”

And thus, years of public rivalry between the two was ignited.

But everything is not what it seems — not even clear and publicly made digs lobbed at one another. In the years following the OG disagreement, Lady Gaga and Madonna have gone on to both throw a few verbal punches at one another and extend olive branches to their rival. Like most petty disagreements —especially ones clearly stoked by the drama-driven celebrity gossip machine — the feud between the two artists eventually calmed down. Seven years after it began, the drama was officially declared dead when the stars posed for a pic together at Madonna’s exclusive Oscars afterparty in 2018.

Now, 15 years after the initial dispute, Lady Gaga and Madonna are rumored to be collaborating on a new song for the Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack. While we don’t know the truth yet, we do know that Gaga (with Doechii) is featured on the soundtrack with the original song “Runway” and Madonna’s 1990 smash “Vogue” appeared in the original movie and has soundtracked much of the sequel’s pre-release promo.

As we impatiently await to see if a collaboration is real or just another rumor added to all the gossip surrounding these two pop legends, Billboard is taking a looking back at the timeline of Lady Gaga and Madonna’s relationship.