- China removes Lady Gaga from a blacklist slapped on foreign artists in 2011
- Censors modify the album art to cover more of the singer’s naked body
- Chinese officials also change one song title, transforming “Sexxx Dreams” to “X Dreams”
- Her “ARTPOP” album shot to the top of the US charts in November
(CNN) — Lady Gaga — the flamboyant and provocative New York-based pop singer — has been removed from a Chinese government blacklist, allowing her chart-topping new album “ARTPOP” to go on sale legally in China.
But Chinese censors have placed conditions on the album art, inflating a large ball between her legs to cover more of the naked singer’s body and adding a pair of black tights to the singer’s bare legs.
The cover of her latest album was designed by the American artist Jeff Koons, who specializes in garish and kitsch representations of the banal and everyday.
Chinese officials also changed one song title, transforming “Sexxx Dreams” to “X Dreams.”
Following a multi-platform promotional blitz — which included Lady Gaga wearing a “flying dress” made from a large hovering drone-like contraption — “ARTPOP” shot to the top of the US charts in November, selling 258,000 copies in its first week.
But in China, the pop diva’s songs had been on a blacklist since 2011, when the Shen Qiaozi, Sina Weibo poster
“I don’t think ban is the way to put it,” a spokeswoman told CNN. “All Lady Gaga’s albums are on sale in China. The newest one is already on sale.”
Posters on China’s lively social media site Sina Weibo were typically mordant about the lifting of the ban.
“‘X Dream’ implies the ‘China Dream’,” said one poster, in reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s slogan about the country pursuing the ‘Chinese Dream.’ “That must be why those high up in the administration have given it a special pass.”
Others, however, were more direct in their criticism.
“Can’t stand it, can’t believe the black tights, has China become a Islamic country?” said one poster labeled Shen Qiaozi.
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