K’Naan, on changing the lyrics to his song “Waving Flag” — which originally referred to his native Somalia as a “violent prone, poor people zone” and now mostly just talks about how fun soccer is — so that Coca-Cola could use it in their World Cup ad campaign: “This was a really great opportunity for them to use my song, without compromising my integrity as a musician.” What?! Look, we have no problem with the move — as K’Naan rightly explains, “I saw it as an opportunity to reach more people … I don’t work for Coke or anything” — but changing the lyrics to your song so that it can be in a soda commercial is pretty much the definition of “compromising [your] integrity as a musician.” [Exclaim.ca]
