Lin-Manuel Miranda + "Weird AL"???

For anyone who does not know me, I am a huge Hamilton fan. I have the whole 2.5 hour show memorized and can quote just about any line from the show. I love the quality of the music plus the characters and plot Lin-Manuel Miranda (writer and lead composer of Hamilton) made out of Hamilton’s biography. 

But now that I’ve begun opening my eyes to other music (I know I’m impressed too) I’ve found my love for “Weird Al” Yankovic. My dad introduced me to “Weird Al” in elementary school or so, playing one of his earlier albums “Alapalooza”. My dad played “Bohemian Polka”, “Harvey the Wonder Hamster”, and “Jurassic Park” for me and my younger sibling. I loved the music and spin “Weird Al” put on his parodies and songs. 

I have imagined a music video collaboration between Miranda and Al to combine my love for both artists. 

For a bit more context, “Weird Al’s” writes mostly parodies and polkas of mainstream songs, creating hilarious and sometimes absurd songs. He writes about giant balls of string in Minnesota, the CIA, traffic Jams, aluminum foil, a bus ride, or being tacky. The weirdness of Al’s music is part of what I love about his music. For me, too much of mainstream music is about falling in love or breaking up and Al’s music gives so many more options and shows music is not restricted to love. Al’s music is a much needed break from mainstream music for me. 

But just because 2 artists are amazing individually, that does not mean they will work well together. Collaboration is very hard and the artists’ skill may not transfer when forced to work with others. But collaboration is why I think Miranda and Weird Al’s partnership would work so well. Both artists have shown they are experienced and skilled at collaborating with others. While Miranda composed and wrote Hamilton, musicals comprise so much more than the songs and words. Andy Blankenbuehler choreographed the movement while Alex Lacamoire helped Miranda in orchestrating and arranging the songs. So to create the entire show, all three people had to work through all their ideas on takes on the show. And Hamilton being 2 and ½ hours long with 20,000 odd works in the show makes that collaboration very impressive. Additionally, Miranda worked with German composers and linguists to translate all of Hamilton into German. Both are testaments to Miranda’s ability to collaborate with others. 

Weird Al’s band comprises of a drummer, pianist, 2 guitarists and they all sing. But in the 35+ years the band has worked together, the band roster has not changed at all, a testament to Al’s ability to collaborate. Additionally, Al has created music videos for many of his songs, all requiring working with a film team and any artist collaborations. So I think Miranda and Weird Al’s collaboration would constructively create an amazing piece without bringing each other down. 

Miranda and Al’s collaboration could go down countless different paths, unrestricted by genre or medium. While Miranda may feel more comfortable writing more rap or musical style music, Weird Al never restricted himself to a single genre or type of song. His music is all over the place. He writes in all genres of music. But to make the most of the collaboration, they could stick with a rapping esc musical. 

The music video would be a song or series of songs all telling a story about some characters. Both artists have so much experience storytelling I wouldn’t limit them to any topic, but I would want it to be a comedic piece. Most of Al’s songs are comedic and Miranda is an amazing actor. I hope they work together sometime in the future.

-Kai