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World Cup music matchup: Shakira vs. Pitbull

With the  World Cup in Brazil the national soccer teams are not the only ones competing for the gold. Shakira and Pitbull are also facing each other for the…

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With the beginning of the World Cup in Brazil the national soccer teams are not the only ones competing for the gold. Shakira and Pitbull are also facing each other for the title of the greatest hit and for their "La La La" and "Ole Ola" to become the song associated with the tournament. 

The International Federation of Soccer has selected Pitbull's "We are the One (Ole Ola)," featuring Jennifer Lopez and Brazilian pop singer Cláudia Leitte as the official song.

However, the characteristic Pitbull party sound, with an infusion of samba, and a 15-second participation by Leitte has been criticized for its lack of authenticity. 

Though not the official song, Shakira is trouncing Pitbull with her simply titled song "La La La (Brazil 2014)," featuring Brazilian legend Carlinhos Brown, which already has more than 100 million hits on YouTube —25 million more than "Ole Ola" and in a shorter period of time.  

The Colombian singer, who would like to achieve the same success she had in 2010 with"Waka Waka," recently declared in an interview that the official song of the previous edition of the World Cup in South Africa changed her life, and not only because of the 700 million hits (and counting) on YouTube but because thanks to it she met the father of her son, the FC Barcelona center-back, Gerard Piqué. 

"If it wasn't for this song, Milan, my son, would not be here," Shakira said. 

On the other hand, Ricky Martin, who launched his musical career at a global level with "The Cup of Life" in France 1998, offers up "Vida," a relaxed and unpretentious feel-good song this time around. 

Both the Shakira and Martin songs  are from the official World Cup album "One Love, One Rhythm," which includes a variety of collaborations from Avicii, Santana, Wyclef Jean and Alexandre Pires with "Dar um jeito" (We Will Find a Way); Aloe Blacc and David Correy with "The World is Ours"; Sérgio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown with "One Nation", and Bebel Gilberto and Lang Lang with "Tico Tico", among other international and Brazilian artists. 

On the other hand, the World Cup has also inspired protest songs that echo the complaints of many Brazilians because the government has spent $11 billion dollars on the World Cup, which they say should have gone to health and education. 

In his song "Desculpe, Neymar," Brazilian singer-songwriter Edu Krieger, calls to attention the national team's star, the manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, and the member of the technical commission, Carlos Alberto Parreira (who played with the winning team of the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.) with a blunt assessment of what the World Cup means to ordinary Brazilians.

"I'm tired of seeing our people consumed, bit by bit, on television. While FIFA is preoccupied with standards, we are guided by thieves," the lyrics of the song say. "We have pretty stadiums and monuments in this country for the World Cup while our schools and hospitals are practically in ruins."

Although the tradition of having an official song for the World Cup was born in 1962, only a couple of them have had wide or far-reaching impact musically — Ricky Martin's "The Cup of Life" was the first. 

Others are simply terrible.

This year's contenders may not be the best, nor the most original, but nobody can deny that they are catchy. 

Only time will tell which one of these songs will be rememberd in history as "the song" of the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

There's no doubt "Ole Ola" and "La La La" are formulaic, but at least they won't put you to sleep like the official song of the U.S. 1994 World Cup, from Philadelphia's Daryl Hall and Sounds of Blackness. 

Sorry guys, but if one thing is certain when it comes to World Cup music, it is that nobody does it like the Latinos. Do you remember any other World Cup song besides "Waka Waka" or "The Cup of Life?" 

Exactly!

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