Update: Lady Gaga Approves Weird Al Parody

Update: In a statement on Weird Al’s blog, the parody singer announced that Lady Gaga has approved the use of her song for his forthcoming album. As it turns out, Gaga never even knew about the song until news of the rejection got back to her. Her manager denied the use before Gaga ever got a chance to listen to it.

“Gaga’s manager has now admitted that he never forwarded my parody to Gaga – she had no idea at all,” Yankovic explains in the post. “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.”

The Prince of Parody Weird Al Yankovic is lashing out at pop megastar Lady Gaga. Yankovic has just released a send-up of Gaga’s “Born This Way,” titled “Perform This Way,” along with a lengthy explanation on his blog as to why the song won’t be included on his new album.

The long and short of the story is that Yankovic made a request to Gaga’s management to release the song. Yankovic not only provided them the lyrics to the song, per their request, but the entire song as well, something he never does. After all was said and done, he was still shut down. In the blog post, the parody performer calls out Gaga for making him work so hard for her approval just to deny him anyway, particularly when he planned to donate proceeds to charity.

Legally, Yankovic could’ve used the song anyway, but sought the pop singer’s approval first. “My parodies have always fallen under what the courts call ‘fair use,’ and this one was no different, legally allowing me to record and release it without permission,” Yankovic says on in the blog post. “But it has always been my personal policy to get the consent of the original artist before including my parodies on any album, so of course I will respect Gaga’s wishes. However, given the circumstances, I have no problem with allowing people to hear it online, because I also have a personal policy not to completely waste my stinking time.”

You can listen to “Perform This Way” below. Yankovic promises that an MP3 of the song will soon be available at WeirdAl.com.