Monday night was the premiere of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s sexy, Hype Williams-directed “Video Phone” video, featuring the two pop stars dancing and posing pin-up style with massive toy guns and matching leotards.
The clip is charged with energy, and the cynics out there might wonder if putting two sizzling divas in a room together created any kind of rivalry. But Gaga says there was no such thing.
“What I was excited about is with B, I had no ego,” Gaga said about the collaboration. “Neither of us had an ego. It wasn’t about competition. It was about, like, ‘Man let’s give the world what they want. Let’s do a real girl-power collaboration where we support one other.'”
For the Day-Glo-tinged video, Gaga ditched her typical avant-garde look and styled herself more like Beyoncé.
“I said, ‘I want to do you in your video, and I want to tribute you. I want to dress up like you,'” she recalled telling her co-star. “And Hype Williams… was so excited. He was like, ‘Gaga I want no makeup on your face.’ It was really stripped down – real Beyoncé hair, and we wore the same outfit in the video, and I [paid tribute to] her.”
Gaga, whose own goth-pop aesthetic has grown more elaborate as her popularity has risen, said she wanted to honor Beyoncé for creating her own style.
“I wanted to [work with her] because this was an era for her in her career where she defined herself aesthetically,” she said. “And that should be applauded that a woman did that. She’s so great at what she does.”