The importance of Drake's collaboration with Barcelona

The news of OVO, Drake's brand, on the Barcelona shirt during the Clasico lost to Real Madrid has rightly gone around the world. The first result of the Blaugrana club's partnership with Spotify has left its mark thanks to the world's most listened-to singer, at least on the streaming platform, and according to various rumours it could be only the first chapter in a series of logos associated with internationally successful artists on one of the world's most famous game shirts. In Spain, in fact, in the last few hours there have been rumours that Shakira's logo would be on the Catalan jersey in the near future, in what was obviously a joke in bad taste given the past between the Colombian pop star and vice-captain Gerard Piqué, who divorced last June after ten years of marriage.

There remains, however, the possibility that other artists will appear on Barcelona's shirt, perhaps following the same modality that brought Champagne Papi, namely major streaming on the platform. And reading the data provided by Spotify right after Drake, who recently broke through the 50 billion listener wall, we find Bad Bunny followed by Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd and Taylor Swift. The king of reggaeton like Drake is a big sports fan, particularly basketball having bought a part of the Puerto Rican team Los Cangrejeros de Santurce, and the bunny-headed logo would help to weld the blaugrana club with its South American base. Ed Sheeran is a big fan of Ipswich Town, for whom he has even posed for some jersey launch campaigns, while the other two artists have no real relationship with football.

Having stars of international fame would make the jersey and consequently the blaugrana club, which has always distinguished itself by having very particular sponsors on its game uniform, even more visible. Ever since the 2006/2007 season, when Barcelona first decided to put a logo with UNICEF on it, they have always attached great importance to what was placed under the club crest. After all, few things like the logo of the main sponsor can make or break a playing kit. We are full of examples of beautiful shirts ruined by ugly sponsors (our friends from Naples know something about this) and at the same time of others with a predictable design made iconic by the aesthetics of the logo in the centre of the chest.  

And the partnership with Spotify, in addition to the always-needed liquidity, can contribute to the creation of unique, one-off jerseys that will delight fans and collectors alike. Indeed, at a time when match-worn jerseys have become as much a sought-after heirloom as they are accessible thanks to platforms that deal precisely in the real-time sale of match-worn jerseys, such as AC Momento, the possibility of auctioning off a piece worn for a single match would create an irrepressible frenzy. Something similar to what Atletico Madrid did during the 2004/05 season when, after striking a deal with Columbia Pictures, they began to advertise on their jerseys the films being released, a different one for each match, creating a small cult. Those were other times, when Spiderman: No Way Home, xXx, Men in Black and Bad Boys were released in cinemas. Now music could take over, interweaving the logos of pop stars with those of football teams and combining for an almost unlimited number of collectible jerseys.