If I were to ask you about what the World Cup is, how would you respond? Odds are you’d explain to my confused self that they’re a series of multisport tournaments that take place in a different nation every 4 years, pitting the best of the best from countries across the world to find out who’s the best-est. Luckily for us, it’s taking place close to home this year; in fact, it’s right at it! The games’ll take place across the United States, with the finals taking place at the famous Metlife stadium in the meadowlands (which has its own host of issues, being rated as one of the worst stadiums in the nation, but that’s another conversation), meaning many average New Jersey folks will finally get the chance to witness the games in person, a dream that had long seemed out of reach for many.
Along with this, I’m willing to bet a couple songs may come to mind when thinking of the Cup. From Waka Waka by Shakira, The Cup Of Life by Ricky Martin, or even, funnily enough, World Cup by IShowSpeed, there have been many iconic songs that went along with their year’s world cups. These songs are full of life in a way that could only describe the pure passion of the games, uniting and firing up millions (if not billions) of people across the world. Mr. Surgent, the head coach of our JV soccer team and world-cup invested fan, recalled how “For me, being a big soccer fan, the song, ball, mascot, and sounds of the World Cup are just iconic. They make the World Cup special in a way nothing else can compare to.”
These shining songs of the past in mind, I had high standards for what they’d produce for the 2026 games. Unfortunately for everyone involved, these standards were not met. The song is Lighter by Jelly Roll and Carín León. The best summary of my thoughts on it would be – , “What in tarnation was that?” Upon listening, you’ll immediately faceplant on the ringing of bass, percussion, and guitar typical of your average American country song. Think Ford commercials, or truck stop staple music. Get the picture? The whole song kind of runs on the repeating of the bland chorus of “Never felt this free before” and “Chains don’t rattle no more”, with the only breakup in the song being a short stanza by Jelly Roll, and a some lines from Carín León in spanish, meaning more or less the same as the lines said in English.
Man, when I tell you this song felt dead, I’m letting it off easy. Gone are the lovable, energetic vibes that characterized the anthems of the older generations. It sounds corny, but those songs had a quality of making you want to get up and dance (something you could see in their music videos), a quality missing here. In fact, upon watching the music video, it’s literally just the two singers awkwardly standing on opposite ends of a soccer pitch. That’s it. The song is criticized for having lyrics and voice that suggest the use of artificial intelligence in its creation, something that, honestly, isn’t too much of a stretch considering similar sounding songs made by AI. Just listen to Walk My Walk by Breaking Rust (or don’t, considering how lifeless it sounds, something I had to put up with for an agonizing 3 minutes and 38 seconds). You can see this negative feedback all over our school, especially from students particularly invested in the World Cup. Jun Nakai, a junior who you’ll find sneaking in soccer clips mid-class, reacted with “the world cup song should be about culture and uniting the world, pushing for humans to be united in this beautiful game, but this song sound like a stereotypical song without any kind of purpose or meaning.” When asked about how it stacks up against past songs, he explained how it’s not even comparable, remarking on how Waka Waka from 2010 was miles better. Still think I’m overreacting? Even teachers feel the same way! Mr. Surgent again remarked on how “It’s super slow, there’re so many repetitive lyrics I can barely focus. Full of life? It’s dragging through the mud!”.
Now, I will say that this song is different from many other world cup songs in that it’s very America themed, something I haven’t seen in place of centering around Latin American or European culture. I don’t think it’s bad that this step into the unknown is being taken in the world cup, considering how much interest in it has been growing here in the United States. What I do take up issue with, however, is how this song portrays America. The song, if I’m being completely honest, feeds into the stereotype many countries have of us and our culture, as it harbors the criticism many existing country songs have nowadays: it sounds repetitive and predictable – similar to the AI music that we all love to hate. This is not to say it’s a useless song that wouldn’t fit anywhere, but it just doesn’t seem to fit the “lively” and original criteria we’ve all come to associate with anything involving the World Cup.
My point in all of this isn’t that the song sucks. Well, it kind of is. But really, my point is more so that it just doesn’t fit what we should be getting for such an awe-inspiring, uniting, and connective event. This song isn’t even one I’d expect from the Superbowl, the crown jewel of American sports, let alone one that’s supposed to represent an event with a plethora of other countries involved. It’s probably too late to retract this unfortunate occurrence of an anthem; the most we can do is cope with it and move on, and hope our friends at the World Cup 2030 will learn from this mistake.
