Lady Gaga is godmother to Elton John's son

Lady Gaga is godmother to Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John. -- PHOTO: AP

LOS ANGELES - BRITISH music superstar Elton John has revealed that he and his partner have chosen pop diva Lady Gaga to be their baby boy's godmother, as he spoke of his joy at being a father.

'Yes, yes she is,' John told ABC's Babara Walters when she asked him if the outlandish singer was the godmother of his son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, in an interview broadcast late Friday.

'When you get to the real person underneath, there's a very simple New York girl who loves her parents. I love her to death and a lot of people said, 'oh, you know, that's crazy,' but they don't know her and we do.'

Zachary was born December 25 to a surrogate for John, 64, and his partner 48-year-old Canadian filmmaker David Furnish, and the couple told ABC of their delight in having a son, and their determination not to spoil him.

'I knew I'd feel joy but it was the most relaxing thing that's ever happened to me,' John said. 'We change him, we bath him, we feed him and we read him a story every night,' said John of the couple's routine. 'And we take him to lunch.' But the millionaire singer said he was determined his four-month-old would learn about values, even though he was being brought up in the lap of luxury.

'The worst thing you can do to a child, and I've seen it happen so many times, is the silver spoon,' John said. 'Being the child of a famous person is very difficult and we're very well aware of the pitfalls of that.' -- AFP

Lady Gaga leads MTV's O Music Award nominations

Lady Gaga (above) leads MTV's newly inaugurated O Music Awards with three nominations. -- PHOTO: AP

NEW YORK - LADY Gaga and Tyler the Creator lead MTV's newly inaugurated O Music Awards with three nominations each.

MTV announced on Tuesday the categories and nominees for its new Web-based awards show, a celebration of digital music. Categories include best fan cover, most viral dance and best music hashtag meme.

Lady Gaga and rapper Tyler the Creator are among the nominees for most innovative artist and must-follow artist on Twitter. Lady Gaga is also nominated for favorite animated GIF, a kind of avatar. Tyler the Creator, of the much buzzed-about hip-hop group Odd Future, is also nominated for his remix of Lykke Li's Follow Rivers.

Winners will be decided by fan voting in social media, with the results shown in real-time. The awards will be presented in a live hour-long webcast April 28 on MTV websites and mobile apps.

MTV, which is part of the Viacom-owned MTV Networks, hopes the show will do for digital music what its Video Music Awards, launched in 1984, did for the music video. As a reference to the rapidly shifting online world, even the 'O' in the OMAs is being left undefined and open to interpretation by viewers.

'Some elements of this will be experimental,' said Dermot McCormack, head of digital media at MTV Music Group. 'If there is such a thing as a beta award show, this is it.' -- AP

Lady Gaga yet to finish You And I

Lady Gaga had earlier stated on her Twitter page that she has completed the production work of her latest album Born This Way, but she has taken back her words. She revealed that she is yet to complete her piano ballad "You and I.”

“I can't tell you who yet, but someone legendary is producing this next song. I’m so excited,” a source informed MTV of Gaga’s revelation to the crowd at her tour stop in Anaheim, California. The new producer will join producers RedOne, Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow, who have contributed tracks to her new album.

Lady Gaga also gave a hint of her singles “Judas”. “It's no surprise, I'm sure, to many of you, that Judas is a man of the biblical senses, so expect to see some symbolism in this video,” she said, “You have to look into what is haunting you, and you need to look into forgiving yourself in order to move on. And it's really fun to dance to and sounds like it could be a pop priest record,” she added.

Britney is back, but can she compete with Gaga?

Britney Spears

LONDON - AS BRITNEY Spears prepares to launch her seventh studio album Femme Fatale on Tuesday, the pop star faces keen competition from Lady Gaga, Katie Perry and Rihanna, who reign atop Billboard's Hot 100 singles ranking.

Her younger rivals' dominance this week may be coincidental - indeed, Spears also topped the ranking recently with Hold It Against Me. - but the chart is a reminder of how crowded the pop diva market has become since Spears rose to fame as a teenager.

There is little doubt her fans will ensure brisk sales - Spears has sold nearly 70 million albums, according to label Jive Record - and her music is making headlines again instead of personal meltdowns, a custody battle and rehab stints.

Spears kicked off a string of promotions for the album on Friday with a performance at a Las Vegas nightclub. On Sunday in San Francisco she will record a sold-out mini-concert to be aired on ABC's Good Morning America TV show on Tuesday.

Yet after more than 10 years in the music business, Spears, now 29, may have to do more to remain relevant in the era of Gaga, critics say.

'As far as novelty goes, her natural demographic now has an icon as quirky and characterful as Lady Gaga to fascinate and fuss over,' said Andy Gill of Britain's Independent newspaper. 'Gaga's music, let's be frank, is not that much better than, or even different to, that on Femme Fatale, but she knows the lingering appeal of playing dress up,' he added in a two-out-of-five star review of Spears' record. -- REUTERS

Lady Gaga