Lady Gaga backs Rebecca Black - and so does Cowell

When Lady Gaga speaks the world listens, which is good news for Rebecca Black. The 13-year-old singer has had a tough time of it lately after her song Friday was derided as one of the worst in pop history.

But now Gaga has come to the defence of Black, tweeting: "I think it's fantastic. I say Rebecca Black is a genius and anyone that's telling her she's cheesy is full of shit."

In lauding Black as a musical genius, Lady Gaga is once again cocking a snook at convention, as she did last September when she wore a raw meat dress to an awards ceremony.

Since Black's mother paid $2,000 to LA-based Ark Studios so her daughter could record the song, Friday has been panned by the critics. While the LA Times described it as "unintentionally funny", Billboard magazine said it was "straight out of Auto-Tuned hell" and Rolling Stone labelled it as an "unintentional parody of modern pop".

Initially Black accused her detractors of "cyberbullying" but she has since realised the truth of the old adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity. The video to Friday has been viewed more than 42,000,000 times on YouTube and has peaked at No.19 in the iTunes singles chart. Billboard estimates that Black is making approximately $27,000 a week from iTunes sales and YouTube streams.

Not that Black will be pocketing the proceeds. Appearing on the Jay Leno show on Tuesday the talented teenager promised to give all monies made from the song to her school and the Japan earthquake appeal fund.

And asked what she thought of the myriad parodies of Friday that have proliferated in recent weeks, Black replied: "I've seen some of them and they can either be really hilarious and make me laugh until I cry. But others are really lame."

Black also revealed to Leno that many of the great and the good of the C-list celebrity world had rallied to her side since Friday hit the headlines, including Nicole Richie, Ryan Seacrest and Joel Madden.

But it was the unequivocal support of Simon Cowell – the high priest of pop – that has given Black the strength to continue. "He wants to meet me!" a breathless Black told Leno, "that's so cool."

Cool for her, maybe, but for the rest of us the prospect of a collaboration between Cowell and Black is musical misery. ·