After her new video for single Judas was leaked online Thursday morning, just hours before its big TV premiere, Lady Gaga‘s decided to fight back against the mishap by releasing the exclusive video online.

The promo was due to air for the first time on Thursday evening on America’s E! network, but the full clip surfaced on the internet yesterday morning, sending fans and gossip bloggers into a Gaga-fuelled frenzy.

Links to the unauthorised video were swiftly removed from the net, but now Gaga has uploaded the complete five-and-a-half minute clip to her official website.

The video has been widely criticised for its religious references – which sees a gang of bikers made up of Biblical apostles alongside actors dressed as Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, who dons a crown of thorns – but Lady G insists the imagery is just art, reports StarPulse.

“I don’t view the video as a religious statement. I view it as social statement,” she says. “I view it as a cultural statement.”

Hmm.