Weird Al Yankovic Announces New Music for the First Time in Years

Yankovic's first new song since 2020 will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of his final studio album, "Mandatory Fun."

By Russ Burlingame

"Weird Al" Yankovic, whose last album of original material was released a decade ago, will release a new single on Friday. The Grammy-winning artist announced that there's new music coming...and that's it. It isn't clear whether this will be a parody or an original song, and it is not clear whether there will be any kind of physical commercial release, although that seems unlikely unless it's more than just a single. Yankovic's last new song, "Now You Know," played over the closing credits to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story in 2022. 

The last time Yankovic made a new song that wasn't attached to a movie or media project was 2020, when he teamed with Portugal the Man to release "Who's Gonna Stop Me?" The use of an image from the Mandatory Fun photo shoot could hint that the new song is actually something recorded years ago and left off the album -- but it's equally likely the song is new, and the image is just reflecting on the 10-year anniversary.

"I don't think I'll do another conventional album," Yankovic told ComicBook in 2023. "The soundtrack came out last year, but that's a various artists album. I'm not giving up music -- I'll probably put out at least one new track next year. But I don't really like the business model of waiting until I have twelve songs and then putting them out all at once. I like coming up with an idea, and if it's good enough, I'll want to get that out immediately, and now I can, because I'm not beholden to any contract of business model."

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Yankovic's recording career started in 1983 with his self-titled debut, after four years of stand-alone songs, originally performed on Dr. Demento's radio show. Between 1983 and 2014, Yankovic recorded 15 studio albums. Over the years, he has also released 14 compilation albums, some of which included new material. His latest release, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, was a soundtrack to the biopic of the same name released in 2022. Earlier this summer, he released a YouTube video using autotune to send up the Biden/Trump debate, marking the third consecutive U.S. presidential election to feature such a video.

Yankovic didn't give a specific time for the song's release, but keep an eye on his YouTube and Instagram pages, where he most often releases new material and information.

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