“Weird Al” Yankovic marked the arrival of the filmed performance of Hamilton on Disney+ by piecing together a new video for his “Hamilton Polka.”
Weird Al released his polka medley of Hamilton tracks back in 2018 as part of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s monthly “Hamildrops” series. With his trusty accordion in hand, Yankovic condensed the three-hour musical into a five-minute medley featuring jaunty renditions of “Alexander Hamilton,” “My Shot,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Wait for It,” “The Room Where It Happens” and the “The Schuyler Sisters.”
The new video for Weird Al’s “Hamilton Polka” pairs the song with footage from the newly released performance film. To make it work, though, the footage is frequently — and hilariously — sped up to fit Weird Al’s breakneck polka pace. There’s also an undeniable delight in watching the likes of Miranda, Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom Jr. and more move their lips and hear Weird Al’s nasally croon come out.
Back in 2018, Weird Al and Miranda spoke with Rolling Stone about their friendship and how the “Hamilton Polka” came about. Polka medleys have, of course, been a key tenet of Weird Al’s career, and as a result, Miranda said he was rather nervous when he asked Yankovic to craft one for his musical.
“Listen, as a long-time Weird Al fan, that’s a scary ask to make,” Miranda said. “I also know there’s only been two other cases where he’s devoted an entire polka medley to a particular artist. There’s ‘Hot Rocks Polka’ on the UHF soundtrack and the Queen polka [‘Bohemian Polka’]. I cannot presume to be in that rarified air as the Rolling fuckin’ Stones! But I asked.”
