By: Jacqueline Larios Dominguez
The World Cup is one of the most popular international sporting events in the world.
Before the event begins every four years, a song gets released to promote the World Cup.
Ricky Martin sang “La Copa Vida” in 1998 for the World Cup that took place in France. One of the most popular songs was “Waka Waka (It’s Time for Africa)” by Shakira and Freshlyground for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Following that was Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leittie released “We are One (Ole Ola)” for World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
All of these songs have one thing in common: they are the type of songs that you can get up and dance to. That’s the spirit of the World Cup.
This year, Grammy Award-winning artist Lil Baby composed the song for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. On September 23 “The World is Yours to Take” was released and only got 861,000 views. That’s a pretty weak response. “Waka Waka” got 3.2 billion. “We are one” got 847 million.
Many things have contributed to the difference in these numbers. One is that this year’s World Cup is in November and not June, like previous years. Students don’t have school during the summer. It’s hot outside and most viewers pay attention to it because there isn’t much going on in the world.
In November, there’s a completely different vibe. It’s colder, kids are in school and different holidays around the world are coming up that take the attention away from the World Cup.
Another thing that could be making a difference is that in the previous songs, there were multiple artists coming together to make one song. This year Lil Baby collaborated with Tears for Fears, a British pop band that’s been around since 1981 (“hype” isn’t the first word people think of when their music comes on). This might mean that he just isn’t as recognizable as other artists. And it can’t reach across certain genres to drive big audiences like other musicians can.
The biggest thing that separates this year’s song from the others is that it’s genuinely not a good song. It doesn’t fit the vibe or bring the hype necessary for it to be a successful World Cup song. Lil baby is a good rapper and an amazing artist. He has awards to prove it, but the song doesn’t give much. No one’s going to turn it on at a party like the other ones.
“I think I left all my feelings at home, it’s okay won’t be using them anyways,” is one of the many boring lyrics. What’s that got to do with the Cup? This song left all its hype at home. Many are unrelated to the event and the few lyrics that are, such as “losers just lose while winners get worshiped,” are just boring.
This year’s song doesn’t have the excitement that everyone associates with the event. One week from now, I hope the games capture the spirit of the World Cup better than the song. This song is overall just not good.
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