Once again the creatures of habit will be hurt to know that their routines will be disrupted as SABC1 embarks on the four-week coverage of the World Cup games starting with the opening ceremony tonight. This means Generations fans will have to be content with their soapie moving to SABC2 at 8pm for the next month.
As the teams ready themselves for the tournament, and as is customary at the event, we will have an opening ceremony.
In 2010, when the World Cup was held in South Africa, there was no doubt that the opening and closing ceremonies were memorable. The opening concert, which saw some of the world’s finest artists perform including Alicia Keys and John Legend, was the first of it’s kind in the history of the World Cup.
This must have been a slap in the face of those who had said that we could not host the showcase in Africa.
Although Bafana Bafana did not do well in their matches, no one can say that South Africa is incapable of hosting international events.
Now it is Brazil’s turn and it is yet to be seen whether they can pull it off. The theme song We Are One (Ole Ola) was written and is performed by Pitbull and Jeniffer Lopez (pictured). We were told that the pair were supposed to be per- forming it together, but there are reports that Lopez has pulled out at the last minute and it would be a shame since this is a Latin-American World Cup and she is one of the biggest exports of such descent.
Then again, she was doing the chorus anyway so perhaps it will still work with Pitbull bellowing his rap verses.
The other people who were billed to perform, but will not be on the list now, are Sir Paul McCartney and Beyoncé. That’s really strange considering there had been reports that they would be there.
Another prominent figure you will not see on the World Cup line-up is Shakira and many men are definitely going to miss those never- lying hips.
Of the A-listers of world music it is still unclear who is going to pitch for this event and that raises eyebrows as to what Brazil is doing wrong. We heard not so long ago that they were not ready regarding the construction of some of the stadiums. The question now is, is Brazil ready for this showcase?
• Find out tonight on SABC1 at 8pm when they screen The Build Up to World Cup Ceremony live from Brazil.