Maya Diab Rips Off Lady Gaga

It's not uncommon for the Arab world to imitate the Western one. After all, half of Egypt's ads are straight up rip-offs of Western ads. Half our products too, come to think of it. And most of the time, we don't really even bother to inject even an iota of creativity into our imitations. I mean, Borio just added a B. And then changed the spelling for some reason. Anyway, the latest in our proudly plagiaristic ways, Lebanese diva Maya Diab has been accused of copying Lady Gaga when she posted a photo of herself on Instagram where she was wearing a skintight black leather bodysuit, sunglasses and a veil, in what seems to be a bathroom. To be fair, that does kind of reek of Lady Gaga, although Gaga's outfits also bare so much skin, you wonder where she got the self-confidence/miles of double-stick tape.

Diab's costume, designed by Nicolas Jebran, was worn – in addition to her bathroom – at a concert in Casino du Liban. After the image was posted, Instagrammers promptly had a field day bitching about how she was copying Lady Gaga, although some were supportive and called her choice of outfit "daring." Sure, let's go with daring. Anyhoo, whether the plastic Lebanese songstress imitated Lady Gaga or not is your call. Only time – and possibly a giant egg costume – will tell. And to be fair, it seems Diab's costume is more an amalgamation of several Gaga outfits. So…more paraphrasing than straight-up plagiarism, in Turnitin terms. And Lady gaga doesn't waste her stage time on boring old leather catsuits – she wears those while out taking an everyday stroll, you know, picking up groceries and whatnot.