MUMBAI: Singer Lady Gaga has praised pop star Madonna for her speech at the 2016 Billboard Women in Music event, by calling her brave and strong.

"Madonna, your speech at the Billboard Music Awards was inspiring. You're so brave and strong. Thanks for being that for us girls we need that," the 30-year-old tweeted on Monday, reports usmagazine.com.

Madonna gave an emotional speech and opened up about sexism and a past rape while accepting the Woman of the Year Award at the 9 December event.

Gaga, who is also a rape survivor and advocate for women's rights, seemed to be burying the rumoured hatchet with Madonna via her tweet on Monday.

The two singers were first pitted against each other when Gaga released ‘Born This Way’ in 2011, and it sounded similar to Madonna's 1989 song ‘Express Yourself’. In February 2015, Madonna said Gaga "blatantly ripped off one of my songs".

(Source: IANS)