Lady Gaga has refused to permit the release of a “Weird Al” Yankovic parody of her song “Born This Way,” according to Yankovic himself. In lieu of releasing the song commercially, Yankovic has posted his parody song “Perform this Way” on YouTube.
I wrote and recorded what I thought was going to be the first single off of my new album: a parody of “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga called “Perform This Way.” But after hearing it, Lady Gaga decided not to give me permission to release the song, so… it won’t be coming out commercially anytime in the near future. Sorry.
As Yankovic notes in his post, the “Fair Use” exception in copyright law allows him to publish and sell parodies of other artist’s work. But as a scholar and a gentleman, Yankovic has always gained consent from the artists he targets before releasing a parody of their song on an album.
UPDATE 1: Al did an interview with NY Times Arts Beat about the Gaga Saga.
UPDATE 2: Turns out Lady Gaga’s manager did not tell her about the parody, she loves the song.
