"Weird Al" Yankovic’s Newest Polka Medley Blazes Through Pop Music Of His Albumless Decade
"Weird Al" Yankovic’s Newest Polka Medley Blazes Through Pop Music Of His Albumless Decade
The parody artist has released his first song in two years, marking a decade since his last album
On Tuesday, July 16, famed musician and parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic commemorated the tenth anniversary of his last album Mandatory Fun, which topped the Billboard 200 and won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album, by announcing that he would be releasing a new song and video Friday. And that’s exactly what happened. His new song is his latest polka medley: “Polkamania!”.
Even from the time he was promoting Mandatory Fun, Yankovic was always suggesting that it would be his final traditional album as he completed contractual obligations. He didn’t stop making music over the past decade, releasing “The Hamilton Polka” in 2018 converting several songs from the musical into polka. His television work in this time, whether performing at 2014’s Primetime Emmys, starring as Milo Murphy on the Disney Channel and Disney XD series Milo Murphy’s Law, guesting on Wander Over Yonder, as a singing monk on the ABC series Galavant, allowed him to make some new original music, but they weren’t released under him for several years, if at all (often released by the corporate parties). March 2020 saw him do polkas for two Portugal the Man songs, "Feel It Still" and "Live in the Moment", before collaborating with them on their single "Who's Gonna Stop Me". Then came production on Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which won the Emmy for Outstanding TV Movie, and would have a soundtrack populated by very welcome remasters and the Emmy-nominated original song “Now You Know”. Film and soundtrack released in November 2022, his most recent song. But that means there’s still much of the last ten years of pop music untouched by Al, whether by parody or polka medley, and the latter is where “Polkamania!” delivers.
The songs covered start at “Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish before running through "Hello" by Adele, "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus, "We Don't Talk About Bruno" by Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Encanto, bringing Al back to singing Disney, "Vampire" by Olivia Rodrigo, "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X, "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee, "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran, "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, a song whose video was at least partially recreated for the Milo Murphy’s Law song “How Do I Do It?” in the crossover episode “The Phineas and Ferb Effect”, "WAP" by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion, "Thank U, Next" by Ariana Grande and "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift. It is truly a fantastic twelve song spread that captures the last decade.
The music video sees each song told in different styles, including a live-action blend for “Old Town Road” and puppetry for “Shake It Off” with an animated (and maybe technically anachronistic) Travis Kelce inclusion. “Uptown Funk” is animated by Ryan “RWappin” Krzak, now a Smiling Friends animator who used to do his own music videos for Yankovic’s songs back in YouTube’s earliest days (even if they haven’t been on that specific platform that long). The segment even stars the protagonist of those videos. The piece for “Flowers” seems to feature Al giving himself his flowers for his career, as he travels through his characters in “Like A Surgeon”, “Amish Paradise”, “Eat It”, “White and Nerdy”, “Dare to be Stupid”, and more. “Thank U, Next” features the return of legendary voice actress Tress MacNeille as the “Next!” lady, having performed as Lucille Ball for “Ricky” back in the day. Here, she’s in pretty much all her Agnes Skinner, Mom, and Grandma Gertie glory. Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano, creator of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, did the “Vampire” portion, and Bill Plympton did “Shape of You”.
The music video can be watched below and the song is also available wherever you get your music digitally. Everybody Polkamon!
