Weird Al Yankovic

Celebrity Speaker Weird Al Yankovic is arguably the most popular comedic songwriter and performer in the history of entertainment. Over the course of 3 decades, Weird Al has countless humorous songs that often mock popular pop-culture tunes. His innovative use of music videos to add to the comedy-based music has been a large part of his commercial success. Al began to garner serious national acclaim in the 1990’s when he released a series of successful albums.

Celebrity Speaker Weird Al Yankovic began creating his own solo music in the 1980’s, but his large commercial success began in the 1990’s. Arguably his largest hit of the 1990’s was a parody of Coolio’s song “Gangsta’s Paradise”.  Al’s version, “Amish Paradise,” became a huge hit with the America public and even rose to #53 on the Top 100 Billboard chart. As he continued to gain more notoriety for his music, Al continued to produce albums at a consistent rate through the 1990’s and 2000’s. His largest hit of the 2000’s was a parody of the song “Ridin” by Chamillionaire called “White & Nerdy.” The song reached #9 on the Billboard Top 100 in the United States and was Al’s first top 10 hit.

In 2014, Celebrity Speaker Al was still ticking along and released his latest album Mandatory Fun. Mandatory Fun was extremely well-received by the music market, and for the first time in Al’s career he had achieved a #1 album on the Billboard Top 100 List. To date, Al has recorded 14 studio albums and has been honored for his work with 3 Grammy Awards.  In addition to his work in music, Al Yankovic has attempted to have a presence in the community as well.  One example comes from his 2011 parody song “Perform This Way” which he based off of a Lady Gaga tune.  The proceeds from the song all went to support The Human Rights Campaign.