Weird Al Yankovic Removes Michael Jackson Parody Songs From Set

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'Weird Al' Yankovic poses in the press room during the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
"Leaving Neverland" has forced Weird Al Yankovic to take "the side of not offending people.”

Weird Al Yankovic's built his career off of doing parody songs of some of the biggest records of the time. He's parodied songs by Nirvana, Chamillionaire, and Michael Jackson. In wake of Leaving Neverland, it appears as if Weird Al Yankovic has decided to pull any parody songs of Jackson from his future set lists. Weird Al is hitting the road this summer on the Strings Attached Tour which will include performances of his biggest records with a full orchestra. He explained that the absence of the MJ tracks are due to the current backlash surrounding the King of Pop.

"I don't know if that's going to be permanent or not," Yankovic told Billboard, "but we just felt that with what's happened recently with the HBO documentaries, we didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable." He added, "I felt I had enough fan favorites in the show that I could get away with it. I haven't gotten a lot of pushback; There have been some people who have expressed disappointment, but we decided to err on the side of not offending people."

Yankovic's move doesn't seem like it's in spite of the allegations of Jackson but rather, treading carefully on a sensitive topic that's struck an enormous amount of conversation and controversy surrounding Michael Jackson's overall legacy as an artist.


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Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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