Lady GaGa has imposed her head on a swan's body for her new 'Applause' music video.

The 'Born This Way' hitmaker's surreal video is jam packed with bizarre costumes, symbolic references to her injured hip and colourful make-up, which have all seen her YouTube views rocket to a staggering 6.4 million.

Gaga's swan costume is a metaphor for the labral tear and how she rose again after sustaining the horrific injury, which forced her to cancel the end of her 'Born This Way Ball' tour last year.

The director, Inez van Lamsweerde, told MTV: ''There were all these kinds of, let's say, tricks in there, but then the big idea was really to have her symbolize this moment of her hip breaking.''

The 27-year-old singer is also pictured nearly naked in the recording, covering her modesty with a couple of seashells - a move inspired by Sandro Botticelli's 1486 painting 'The Birth of Venus' - as well as nothing but a pair of plastic hands.

He added: ''We were extremely inspired by Botticelli's painting. [We were also inspired by] having this idea that she goes through this struggle to go back onstage, which is in that pink laser tower.

''And she's sort of dragging that leg as a trophy and making it back on stage as a fully-realized, complete new person and that's why the Botticelli came to mind.''