Just when you thought Ceelo Green’s 2012 Ramones molestation “Hey ho! Let’s go!” was the worst steaming pile of shit to ever introduce a professional sporting match, along comes Priyanka Chopra’s “In My City.”
The Bollywood actress/singer’s song, featuring the deplorable will.i.am, is the newest theme to the NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football series, debuting last night before the Patriots/Jets game. “In My City” is a cheap, disposable club tune where Chopra prances around and welcomes everyone to her city — not ours, not yours. Even Rob Gronkowski gets into it and welcomes us to… Foxborough?
But then, just as the awkwardness and forced sex appeal of “In My City” really sets in, it happens. Producers edit in a spot of what appears to be the Fenway Park crowd holding up “Boston Strong” signs before quickly cutting to Tom Brady’s lovely face. Was the clip of David Ortiz reminding us “This is our fucking city” too expensive?
Come on. Showing the Fenway Park crowd right after the bombings? Before a football game? Five months later, and during a song preaching city pride? This seemed to border as much on exploitation as all the fake “Boston strong” shirts sold after the marathon bombings. We get it. We’re in Boston. We don’t need that imagery forced down our throats before a nationally-televised Pats game. We’re moving on and coping in our own way.
But hey! She’s one of us, a half-Bostonian (our favorite kind), so she understands. Chopra tells MTV:
“Having grown up in both New York and Boston, two major [rival] football cities and coincidentally the two teams playing the night of my big debut, it’s nothing short of surreal to be with the NFL as the opening act for Thursday Night Football. ‘In My City’ was my first single, it has a very special place in my heart, and I am beyond excited to bring the amazing energy of the track to the NFL’s passionate fans,” Priyanka Chopra said.
If you’re unfamiliar with Chopra, she did a track with Pitbull last this year [edit]. Thankfully, it’s less offensive.