Nicki Minaj, Maluma, & Myriam Fares Made An Extremely Glossy World Cup Anthem
This weekend, the World Cup kicks off in Qatar, a country that has been responsible for some notoriously awful human rights abuses. The vibes are terrible. Pop stars like Dua Lipa and Rod Stewart have let the world know that they will not take part in the Qatar festivities. Other stars have not had those compunctions. Lil Baby already released one World Cup anthem that heavily samples Tears For Fears. Today, we get another big World Cup song from three global artists.
“Tukoh Taka” is, at the very least, better than that Lil Baby song. It’s a supremely slick house track from producers Play-N-Skillz, Massari, and Gordo. (You might know Gordo as the EDM producer once known as Carnage who recently helped Drake put together his house experiment Honestly, Nevermind.) The track has three massive singers delivering verses in a bunch of different languages. In her verse, Nicki Minaj slides in bits of Spanish and patois. She’s joined by the Colombia reggaeton star Maluma and the Shakira-esque Lebanese singer Myriam Fares.
The “Tukoh Taka” video mostly takes place in the desert, and the three stars never appear onscreen together. It’s slick and well-made, and you can tell that it had a big budget. Watch it here, if you like. (FIFA made the video non-embeddable for some reason.)