While the Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event in the United States, virtually everywhere else in the world, it’s the other football’s World Cup dominates. Though it doesn’t have a musical performance equivalent to the Super Bowl Half-Time show, it does have official songs and anthems. Ricky Martin’s official song for the 1998 World Cup, “The Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida)” elevated the tradition, and Martin’s career, to the next level. The infectious, GRAMMY Award-winning track is a collision of Samba, Latin, and Dance sounds that helped fuel the late 90s Latin Pop explosion.

Watch the video: “La Copa de la Vida” or “The Cup of Life”, stream it, or check out Ricky Martin’s memoir.

In celebration of summer, the staff at THE 97 has compiled a playlist containing some of our favorite summer songs, from then and now. Each day we will reveal one song, rotating daily between past and present with pairings from 1998 and 2023, for a total of 97 days/songs. Since we love nostalgia, we’re celebrating summer songs from 1998 as they turn 25, alongside new songs that we feel deserve some shine. Pairings could be thematic, sonic, or based connections between the artists.

Check out our full “THE SUMMER 97 (1998 x 2023)” playlist here

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