Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Really?

I was amused to read that the South African tourism board hired someone to create a World Cup dance. The diski, South African slang term for soccer, dance combines traditional South African dance and moves inspired by playing soccer. It was taught at the games and has become a minor pop culture phenomenon. Great viral marketing if you ask me!

Shakira also got in on the World Cup attention by singing the official World Cup 2010 song, "Waka Waka". When I heard it my second thought was why was a Mexican singer chosen for this honor. (My first thought was that the name of the song sounded really stupid.)

Hosting the world cup has the same benefits as hosting the Olympics; it grabs the world's attention and the brief spotlight increases tourism and is a great opportunity to educate people about the culture of a place.

Why waste this chance by having Shakira create and perform the official song? Apparently, South Africans weren't pleased by her pronunciation of the African words that make up part of the song. That isn't too surprising; we've all heard her butcher English. Not to bash on Shakira (who is fabulous), but it also appears she tried to make herself look black in her music video. Really?! Really?

2 comments:

Jeff said...

Shakira is Colombian, in case you care about facts.

Sam Adams said...

Jeff beat me to it.