Lady Gaga credits late fashion designer Alexander McQueen for her successful pop career.

The quirky singer reckons Alexander - who hanged himself last year - was looking down on her when she released her latest single Born This Way in February, exactly a year after he passed.

'I think he planned the whole thing,' says Lady Gaga, 25.

'Right after he died, I wrote Born This Way. I think he's up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing.'

Lady Gaga - real name Stefani Germanotta - even says she's not the brains behind her record-breaking single.

'When I heard that, I knew he planned the whole damn thing,' she tells Harper's Bazaar.

'I didn't even write the f***ing song! He did!'