Elton John says Madonna was 'ungracious and nasty' to Lady Gaga as he reignites feud

'An established artist shouldn’t kick down a younger artist at the start of their career'

Elton John has accused Madonna in his new memoir of being “nasty and ungracious” to Lady Gaga during an interview.

The singer, who released Me last week, discussed a 2012 ABC News segment in which Madonna said Lady Gaga’s hit song “Born This Way” was “reductive” for sounding too much like her own song “Express Yourself”.

“I got that Gaga’s single ‘Born This Way’ definitely sounded similar to ‘Express Yourself', but I couldn’t see why she was so ungracious and nasty about it, rather than taking it as a compliment,” John writes in the book, adding: “...particularly when she claims to be a champion for women.”

He continued: “I think it’s just wrong – an established artist shouldn’t kick down a younger artist right at the start of their career.”

At the time of the interview, John responded by calling Madonna a “nightmare” and a “fairground stripper”, comments he revealed he had no idea were going to make it onto TV.

“I was furious and I said some pretty horrible things about her to a TV interviewer in Australia, a guy I’d known since the Seventies called Molly Meldrum. You can tell from the footage that it wasn’t part of the interview, that I was just sounding off to an old friend between takes.

"They broadcast it anyway, which brought that particular old friendship to a very swift conclusion. Still, I shouldn’t have said it. I apologised.”

Despite their apparent feud, Madonna was pictured partying with Lady Gaga at an Oscars after-party earlier this year. The latter is godmother to John’s two sons.