Popworldcupjustice: Colombia vs Greece

COLOMBIA V GREECE

Guest referee:
Michael Lewin — Editor, Notion magazine

 Carlos Vives feat ChocQuibTown — ‘El Mar De Sus Ojos’

“My guy Carlos is quite the local pop culture titan — a latin soapstar turned popstar filling the 80s charts with (rather deriv­at­ive) electro power ballads before pivoting to big party tunes in the 90s. His ‘thing’ is to mix tra­di­tional Colombian Vallenato with pop, rock and rap — almost as egregious a con­coc­tion as the Geneva Convention-breach­ingly awful Clean Bandit. Now, can we talk about the video? Adding a middle aged lothario into the scene of the '…Baby One More Time' video does nothing for its more dis­tress­ing under­tones, no matter how many times you cut to Nicki Minaj dressed as a teacher. It’s not explained why the school­girl is tripping during class, either (perhaps something to do with the panpipes? Hippies like those), but points are awarded to the ima­gin­a­tion that decided to situate an umbrella-wielding rave in the midst of an opera. That traditional/contemporary pro­duc­tion crossover lacks whatever freshness it once had, and the crow­bar­ring in of unfor­tu­nately named rap troupe ChocQuibTown isn’t helping either. Think of it this way: an angli­cised reima­gin­ing of this would be Ian Beale dropping a single mixing pastoral folk and pop with a guest verse from N‑Dubz, sur­roun­ded by sexy, tripping school children. The chorus is a bit of a letdown as well."

 Master Tempo & Xristos Menidiatis — ‘Xamos Tha Ginei’

“Perhaps it's because it’s been so sunny, but I’m rather charmed by Master Tempo. That bit of my heart that is forever sat in a marina bar on holiday can’t help but love them. They inhabit every stig­mat­ised cliché of parochial Europop so effort­lessly: the horns, the raps, the dis­tressed denim. Best of all, I love the way they tread that fine line between women-in-the-street-bothering machismo and teary-eyed sen­ti­ment­al­ity that only the Mediterranean take on mas­culin­ity can coun­ten­ance. Also, Carlos, that’s how you do a chorus. They even have the dress sense of foot­ballers. My guy in the middle looks like Sergio Aguero dressed up as George Michael for the Man City Christmas party. Basically these guys have all the flam­boy­ance that their nation’s team lacks."

Michael's full time score:

Colombia 1 — Greece 3

Now you can vote for your own favourite.

Next up: Uruguay vs Costa Rica