Lady Gaga was pressured to drop a controversial song about Princess Diana from her new album.

The 27-year-old star had wanted "Princess Die" included on her third studio LP ARTPOP - which will released on Monday - but worried record company bosses at her label Streamline and parent firm Interscope urged her to axe the song fearing it may upset fans of the late Diana.

"Lady Gaga was passionate about Princess Diana and, though she admitted it wasn't her best work, she still wanted it on the album. But after the adverse reaction it got from fans in the UK when she sang it at her gigs last year, the record company bosses stepped in. They persuaded her to remove it from the album to keep the peace. There still is a lot of emotion over Princess Di. Her death remains a very sensitive subject," a source said.

Gaga performed the song, written in 2011, at a concert in Twickenham, London, last year and told a somewhat skeptical crowd that it was her way of paying homage to the beloved royal - the mother of Princes William and Harry who tragically died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

"Since I was a very young girl, the People's Princess was the most important person in me and my mother's life. I predict controversy but I don't care. Let's take a moment to appreciate her presence," she said at the show.

Gaga has tried to make light of the omission, telling fans the song "isn't as good as the other songs" written on her third studio album and that's why it was omitted.