Weird Al Gets Clearance for Lady Gaga Parody
Weird Al
"Weird Al" Yankovic has been cleared to use his parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" on his upcoming album.
On Wednesday, the pop parodist posted a lengthy screed on his blog he called "The Gaga Saga," in which he claimed that the pop diva had blocked the song's use on his next collection. Yankovic's frustration was palpable, since, according to him, he jumped through all of the necessary hoops (all of them through Gaga's people, not her directly) to get his "Perform This Way" cleared. "I'm especially confused as to why she waited until I actually recorded the song (at her insistence!) before saying no. It's not like there were any surprises in the finished song that she couldn't have foreseen by, you know, READING THE LYRICS," Yankovic wrote.
Watch another Gaga parody from Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski
But then, TMZ reported that Gaga had never actually heard the parody, a fact soon corroborated by Yankovic. In a follow-up post he wrote: "Gaga's manager has now admitted that he never forwarded my parody to Gaga — she had no idea at all. Even though we assumed that Gaga herself was the one making the decision (because, well, that's what we were TOLD), he apparently made the decision completely on his own. He's sorry. And Gaga loves the song."
Give Gaga's original another listen
What this means is that "Perform This Way" will appear on Yankovic's upcoming album. He says he'll donate all proceeds from the single release and its video to the Human Rights Campaign. What it really means is that talking through people is no substitute for direct communication. What it really, really means is that there is great value in artistic tension (even when it isn't real): in just one day, "Perform This Way," which Yankovic released "unofficially" on YouTube, netted over 700,000 views.
Listen below: