FIFA officials say Jennifer Lopez won’t perform the World Cup song alongside fellow artists Pitbull and Claudia Leitte during the World Cup’s opening ceremony in Brazil.
Soccer’s governing body says Lopez cannot perform at Thursday’s event because of unspecified “production issues.”
FIFA said in a news release on Sunday that Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte will sing the official tune “We Are One” before Brazil takes on Croatia on Thursday in Sao Paulo.
The song has let down many Brazilians who complain that it sounds too generic for Bossa Nova-crazed audiences in Brazil and that it features foreign musicians singing mostly in English and Spanish. Leitte sings only a few seconds at the end of the song in her native Portuguese.