On July 4th weekend I had the pleasure of witnessing the greatest pop concert I have ever seen — Lady Gaga‘s Monster Ball. Gaga sweated, sang, performed and emoted like it was the last minute of her life; I reviewed the show over at BET.com.

I have seen Madonna, Prince, Janet, Mariah and several others in concert but Gaga was the greatest. Granted, I didn’t see Madge during Blonde Ambition or Mr. Nelson during Purple Rain, this is Gaga’s moment so her hunger is extreme like I am sure theirs was then. Now, Prince refuses to sing “Darling Nikki” and Madonna is mortified at being called a “Material Girl.” Baby, “masturbating with a magazine” and “living in a material world” is what made you gals famous! But, I digress…

The biggest gripe about Gaga is that she’s robbing Madonna’s style, edginess and sound. Being a huge Madonna fan, I was giving Gaga the side-eye when I saw her July 4th, but after seeing this fercious force of New York nature in concert — BAB-BAY, the comparisons end now! Once you get past the blond hair and being Italian women — Madonna and Lady Gaga have about just much in common as Mel Gibson and Ghandi!

While I love Esther, we all know, and she has admitted, that she is no great singer. She was once called “Minnie Mouse on helium.” Furthermore, as original as people think Madonna was, which she is, her critics at the time complained she robbed the styles of Boy George, Debbie Harry and Marlene Dietrich — clearly these critics just had a case of the “can’t takes.”

Madonna was/is original, but she was never a Lady Gaga. Gaga has a voice that is more like Pat Benatar, a style that channels Andy Warhol‘s muses, performance art similar to David Bowie and instrumentation and soul like Elton John. Gaga stands on her own and has clearly been inspired by a little of everything. Thankfully, she has raised the bar in music.

Over the past decade it seems female artists have relied too much on their looks, weaves, popping their cooch and lip-synching. Now these chicks are going to have step up their game, it’s taken a long time but finally some art is injected back into pop.

Check out my review of Gaga in Atlantic City, NJ: Lady Gaga Sets July 4th on Fire.

Watch Gaga’s wet performance of Teeth from the Today Show!