How to Build a Setlist for the FIFA World Cup w/ Grayson Repp

24:15Grayson Repp:and it was all Brazilian players. So they're like, okay, like I talked to them before. I said, hey, listen, like, I really need your help. with some of this Brazilian playlisting stuff because Brazilian music is so interesting because there's about 50 versions of every single song and it makes my life look very difficult because I'm like which one of this version this version I can't tell there's a live version I don't know which one so they were very helpful and the big like keynote event of the whole uh spiel was Ronaldo speaking because he doesn't do a lot of speaking events he's arguably the most um famous player from brazil which is the most famous football country um and uh he was coming to speak and i said okay we're gonna play his song that was written about him when he walks on when they introduce him so i'm like great this is amazing so the sun is setting a couple hours go by he's supposed to be there doesn't show up for like two hours this is like when afro house came onto the scene and it's very south of france so i'm like okay i'll do like the afro house the sun is setting it was a vibe everyone's kind of moving we're having a good time finally finally finally he shows up i get the cue all right we're gonna introduce him press play on his song i go to play his song and across the cdj reads like i don't know the exact number but it's like 808 unsupported format file and it just doesn't play so then i was like everyone was kind of looking at each other and thankfully again due to preparation fifa has a song that's uh it's like their motto is like FIFA unites the world.

25:44And they actually have a theme song that was written by Hans Zimmer. And I had that on the other, it's just like,

25:50Grayson Repp:like because of divine timing, it happened to be on the other CDJ. I actually didn't even plan this. I think it just skipped to that one. And so I did have something to play that was FIFA related. Thank goodness. So nobody knew except for me and like the few Brazilians that we'd planned this out with. And they're like, oh my God, goes up, does the interview. It's amazing. He had two songs. So I played the other one when he walked off. And then I was able while he was speaking to download the version and fix it and put it into Ableton and fix the file. So this was totally my fault. I should have tested the file before.

26:20Grayson Repp:I think this was like the fifth day of the event. And I DJed for 12 hours a day. So I was kind of also at my limit. But this is like a thankless job. And when you work with FIFA, it has to be perfect, like always perfect. And yeah, so I played his song afterwards. I ended up playing the one afterwards, like that song that I missed after that. And then he like waved to me after. And then he was like, I'm so happy you guys played my music. Thank you so much. So crisis averted. It worked. Could have been really, really bad. I'm telling you, everybody from senior management at FIFA executive committee was there.

26:52Grayson Repp:And I was like, oh, my goodness. This could have been the worst. So that's my biggest horror story. I mean, I've had several other horror stories in actual nightclubs, but those are for other reasons. Yeah. But in sports, I mean, here's the thing about working in sport is I don't know if a lot of people know this, But when you work on a venue entertainment team, like I have somebody that's speaking to me, that's the show caller in like the control room. It's like a it's like a five person team. So then you have a commentator, a presenter, an emcee and a floor manager. And we're all communicating together at the same time.

27:27So somebody can tell me, hey, team is about team is about to walk on the pitch. So play their song. So thankfully, it's like I have people to rely on.

27:35Grayson Repp:So if things go wrong, then we have a general direction to go in. which is amazing and um yeah like i said the preparation like i think thank goodness i had that other song back up if i didn't then i don't know i don't want to think about it scary stuff scary stuff especially with like the biggest player ever just waiting for you to figure it out casual yeah i'm like you know of all moments all moments i'm like this is when i had to happen i i'll never forget the the the woman louisa sitting next to me her the look in her eyes was like it was the death stand and she was resilient so it's obviously a big moment for her and I'm like I totally messed this up didn't I but got it afterwards so that's okay you made it you made it well okay so I'm curious if you can kind of break down for us for those who don't really know it feels like FIFA is very interested in integrating music into their events what are some of the ways that FIFA integrates music obviously you have like your World Cup anthems like Waka Waka being probably the most famous one by Shakira but yeah can you break down like all the different ways that they try to integrate music my expertise and who i've worked with is the venue entertainment side so anything that you're going to hear in the stadium is probably been curated by me in the last five years um fifa sound was formed in 2021 and you could say that's like the in-house label or the section of fifa that handles music specifically so they do all the commercial releases um so all the official songs will be under their imprint um including the remix package that i did for vancouver which was like the fifa theme for vancouver it was a remix of the theme song for 2026.

29:10can you explain that a little bit really quick absolutely yeah like so all the host cities have remixes right correct okay yeah so there's 16. so a couple years ago they asked me they said hey we're thinking of doing this album for the theme song

29:25Grayson Repp:because there was a theme song that was already made for 2026 and they said we want a producer from each city to remix it to make the sound of their city essentially and they asked me to do Vancouver so yeah I was luckily able to do that and I absolutely enjoyed it I got to work to work with the uh indigenous musicians out of Vancouver and we got in the studio and came up with a song and uh yeah there's 15 other amazing versions as well so those songs will be used I think for the commercial spots so when you hear like when the players walk on the pitch in Vancouver it'll be my song that's playing Seattle for the Seattle producer LA so on and so forth so they organized that and then they also organize the uh official tracks that are being released now that's teamed up with sal xo and uh def jam recordings so that's who's producing that which is amazing for me because sal and that group is all canadian so i you know absolutely love that and think that's so cool and i guess going back to shakira she's like a juggernaut like that song um has four and a half billion streams i think it's the eighth most played music video of all time on youtube no way this is actually gonna be and she has i believe it's it's incredible so funny enough uh her song waka waka uh it's time for africa 2020 10 uh she wrote that like walking on her farm in uruguay like right before the world cup and then ended up being like the sensational head and she's like the you know she's undoubtedly like the the queen of latin pop music so to have her back she's actually coming out with a new song and it's one of the official songs for FIFA.

30:57Grayson Repp:So I'm really happy that they brought her back because it's, you know, it's going to be a banger when it's her. I love it. I love it. Yeah. And so I'm curious, being the person who's on the ground on the day of, how much do you try to integrate these recordings that FIFA has commissioned into the actual live events? So it depends. Usually they're going to save most of their tracks for protocol moments so they will be played over a commercial which wouldn't necessarily be handled by me um in 2022 it was done by me and it was a little bit finicky because i had to start the song when the commercial started so we had to be on to the second but that was for reasons way above my pay grade but i know for 2025 like for example when they had um uh the theme song for that they would just have it placed in a commercial so that would come onto the big screen and they'd be like oh here's the official song da da da play it on the screen so then i would have like a three minute break um other than that and so for example in 2022 like i would play songs like walka walka because they were past releases um they also asked me to like make a special version like a walkout for the players of uh sorry light the sky and dreamers which were the official songs for 2022 so again that was used in like a actual pre-match protocol moment rather than me just playing it whenever I felt like in my set.

32:20Grayson Repp:So it's different every single time. Got it. And okay, you mentioned commercial breaks. That's something I'm really fascinated by within sports now because so much is televised. And there's also like more advertisements and commercials integrated into stadiums themselves for people to see in the crowd while they're watching the game or in between like, you know, some of these moments. I'm wondering for you, if you can go a little bit deeper on that and explain how you navigate commercial breaks and other things that are required by the stadium in terms of advertising? It's a good question. And I don't know if I'm the most equipped for that one, because like I said, my job as venue entertainment music curator is solely for the fans.

33:06So anything that's commercial, that's going to be a FIFA sound thing. And that would be integrated into like the the uh cue sheet right so that would be the show caller that'd be like hey talking to the audio person and talking to the video director being like hey we're about to come to commercial this is when we're gonna throw that on um the extent that i've done and been involved is sometimes they're like hey we need like a song for a spot like can you give us like a can you give us like five different remixes of we will rock you and we'll pick one and we'll go from there so that's honestly like the full extent that i have to do with actual commercial stuff Like usually that's just not my, yeah, my thing is like Grayson, just make the party happen.

33:44And we'll fill in, we'll tell you when to stop and when we need to go to commercial. And then we'll tell you when to go back on. So that's been my role. Fair enough. Okay. So I'm curious also if you've experienced any viral moments in any of the games that you've soundtracked. Has your music made it into any viral clips of any of the matches, any of the games that you've been part of? Yeah. so i i would say my biggest and most cherished dj moment um and this wasn't really planned for was after the 2022 match uh it was 3-3 and it went to overtime and then to penalty kicks which is a dream final in soccer or any sport like going to overtime in a final is just the whole world is watching there was a billion and a half people watching that match and um i remember the show caller saying to me hey man we need a song here right before penalty kicks like what do you got and uh i went with intro by the xx oh because i was like this is probably the last choice because most people are like yeah i do like eye of the tiger or something like that and from my dj background i'm kind of like oh that's been done before so i really took a risk and it seemed like when i turned that song on the whole stadium just like and it was kind of silent and it was just this magical moment because it's an instrumental right So it's just there's something about that record.

35:01And I think it goes back to I really enjoyed the movie Project X. I think that was one of the reasons why I also became a DJ. And that scene and the last scene is that song playing. And I think like it's very big in the indie world, but I thought it was a little bit underrated. Like I would listen to it sometimes, but it's not a song you usually play like a club. And I'm like, I think this is the perfect song. And then it like went like 10 million on like TikTok. And people were like, this was the perfect song for this moment. and I was like whoa I just thought that was like a cool song to play and I think that's I think that's a testament to like 11 years of actually DJing but like curating music and trying to like I said I used to make the mixtapes like I've been doing that since I was eight years old so I think like that was one of those pinnacle moments of just mastery that that's how that happened um one other or two other examples during that world cup um I played uh Calm Down by rima which was essentially the unofficial theme song of that tournament because like that was just really popular record um he's from he's from africa so it was uh afro beat and that sound was really coming into its own globally at that time and i did that one i think that one went 12 million um i played sweet caroline that's like a huge football song for england and the usa and i actually played it at halftime when it was england versus usa and uh that's that was the first video that went viral so it was crazy and then last summer i had another cool moment i played free from desire when chelsea won the fifa club world cup and the video that i was able to get because i turned on my phone and as i was playing it and as i played it i kind of panned the phone down to the pitch and you could see when the players heard it and they started running towards their fans and that one did like four million five million too so those were incredible moments And actually one more, just because again, my, my love, my love for Mexico.

36:52I played El Rey after the final of that event and my wife, Sophia filmed it. And that was like the moment where they were like, yeah, you're one of us, man. So yeah, there's like, there's opportunity. There's really cool opportunities for cool moments like that. And I think that's why I love the venue entertainment program.

37:09Grayson Repp:And I love being a part of this new industry because it's like, you know, music and sports is a match made in heaven if it's done right. and to be a part of it, it still shocks me that I'm still a part of it. So it's really cool. Yeah. Well, I mean, you mentioned when a match will go into overtime. I imagine you, because you're so overprepared, do you just have a ton of songs that are prepared for those kind of pivotal moments in the game, even if it goes over time? I think it annoys the rest of the team and it annoys the Human Rights Anti-Resource or the Human Rights Anti-Discrimination Group because then they're like, oh man, And like, we got to go through another 60 songs, Grayson.

37:48Like, please just send us because it's, you know, they don't know. Like, I can give you another example of this, which is kind of funny. And last year in 2025, I came in for the semifinals and the finals of the Arab Cup. And usually I just have everything organized by key. And I have hundreds of songs in these playlists. And I try to, when I'm doing the preparation, like I usually won't play a song that I don't know. That's just kind of been a rule of thumb for me since I started DJing. Like, like if I haven't played it live already, I'll make sure that I've listened to the track. I know where the cue points are well ahead of what I'm doing so that if we get into a bad situation or whatever's happening, usually they fall back on me.

38:24So let's say that a microphone goes out when the presenter is presenting or this video screen has a malfunction. They always go, OK, Grayson, we're coming back to you because we can just fall back on music and we know that you can just like pump it for as long as I have to.

38:37Grayson Repp:Like sometimes, you know, in the Olympics, for example, there was a huge snowstorm that rolled in before the preliminaries for the women's big air. And I had to play like three extra hours for these people, you know, because they've obviously spent all this money on their ticket and they're not going to leave. So it's like I just had to keep going. So I just kept going, kept going, kept going, kept going. So that's where like the preparation comes in. And that's why I'm just, again, overprepared to a fault because it's if you're not, then you're going to have to keep playing the same songs over and over again.

39:07Grayson Repp:And I don't think anybody loves a DJ that does that. Yeah. Well, okay. So you've mentioned a couple of times that you have gotten your songs, you know, kind of scanned or checked by this like human rights council to make sure that it's not offensive to anyone. So what, what are grounds for something being offensive? Is it expletives or political content? All of the above. Tell me a little bit about like how that actually, that process actually works when you're getting that check done. Absolutely. So it's, it's all of the above. And it can be so from my understanding, I will put a song into a document.

39:42They will go read the lyrics and then they'll do like a big background check on the artist and make sure that, you know, nothing horrible or they've said nothing horrible, which is sometimes difficult with the biggest stars that we have on the planet. But it's really good that we have that there because you never know who's going to be. And since this is such a global sport, these things have to be checked. Like there's a couple examples. seven nation army was one that they relied on for pre-match ceremony for a long time like a decade and then in 2022 they we actually used it for the first half of the tournament and then anti-rights was like or anti-discrimination was like yeah we don't think we can use this anymore because one of the teams has come up with a racist chant towards another team like just at this tournament so it's like it can happen on the fly and organically too so then we're like okay we need to cut that um but yeah it's an all above check and i think that's uh that's so important when you're doing events like this because you never know and then you know i'm not perfect either so sometimes i'll miss stuff like sometimes there might be uh not a clean version like i know the rules are a little bit different in north america as compared to north or sorry of europe in germany i know you can listen to the radio and they'll have all the swear words on there they do not care like it's not a thing here they really don't care so when i did the nba event i was talking to my colleagues that were based out of uh uk and i just said hey listen i'm gonna clean it just to make sure but i'm like they're if they're because they were like hey can you lean more urban hip-hop rap i'm like yeah 100 and i just said listen like i know all these songs they say clean version there's a lot of them to play over eight hours so if there is something that slips out let me know and we'll make sure that we get rid of it for tomorrow um but yeah it's just it's really good

41:21Grayson Repp:to have these things in places because you never know who's listening and you just need to be mindful of people yeah do you ever get stage fright knowing that there are some of the most powerful world leaders watching you dj at the world cup you know what i would think i was more nervous to do this podcast wait grayson i'm not scary i hope i'm not scary not you no no no it's just the thing you know again over prepare um yeah yes i would say the the first time in arab cup 2021 uh this is also kind of a funny story and just goes to show like how we've just in we've made the program better and better over time in 2021 the resources were really slim and it was the first time that we'd use djs and they had an a1 like an audio one person in the booth that did pre-match protocol which is playing the national anthems which is the biggest deal out of any pre-match protocol if you mess up an anthem that is it like that's it couldn't be especially when it's on tv right and i guess the person that was doing it on the specific stadium was essentially like dragging a song into itunes and that's how they were playing the anthems and they're kind of like uh because we do a lot of rehearsals right so there's like three days of rehearsals before a big match where we practice all of this stuff over and over and over and over again and uh you just couldn't get it right so they're like grayson can you do the anthem and i'm like yes i'll do it you know i'll do it and um i had to play the third place match and it was uh qatar so the host and the emir was about 10 meters to my right and you know it's uh there's just something about uh the leaders of these countries that operate a little bit differently so it was really interesting experience for us and i played the anthem and i got through it i actually pressed play and i stepped two meters back and put my hands like behind me because I'm like I don't want anything to mess up this anthem we played it through I looked over he gave me a little smile and I was like okay cool and then after that in 2021 I would say all of the nervousness had gone away I think like people ask me this question a lot I mean I went from DJing the world cup final in front of 88 000 people live and a billion and a half people on tv to playing in a nightclub in front of 25 people in 48 hours and at this stage I'm like it's all the same for me like I enjoy it and it's uh it's so much fun and getting the energy of the stadium is just so much fun and I see it as a challenge every time I go to do it because obviously I want to do my best but that's how I treat every DJ setting even if I'm playing in like a rooftop lounge in Berlin I want to do the same thing so over time the nerves have gone down a little bit and um yeah it just makes it more exciting yeah well okay so also I want to go back to this remix that you did for your hometown of Vancouver.

44:05So you did integrate, this is the first time it's ever happened from my understanding, but you did involve local indigenous groups to make the song with you. So can you walk us through how that song came to be and how you got in contact with these tribes to invite them over to work with you? Absolutely. So when they approached me to do the record, they had me fill out a document and just said, Hey, what is your, in your opinion, like, what does Vancouver sound like and feel like you know you're from there can you tell us a little bit about the culture and the instrumentation you would use and the vibe so i filled out this whole document

44:40Grayson Repp:and then i was thinking i'm like we have to include the indigenous people because i mean they were here first they've been here forever and we have so many like i have a few amazing friends that are part of these communities and my mom is actually like the lead social worker at one of these communities in the interior of british columbia so i actually messaged her first and i I said, can you get me contact to like the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and like to the nations to talk to them? And she put me in contact with them. And then I kind of at the same time relayed this to the city of Vancouver because they were trying to make the plans for this.

45:12And we just all had a big meeting. And I said, hey, listen, I would really love for you guys to be involved in the song. It wouldn't be right if I didn't. If you weren't involved, how can we set this up? Obviously, I was in Berlin at the time. So FIFA Sound ended up flying me over there. We rented out Brian Adams studio, which was incredible. I had no idea it was his studio. and there was like grammys on the wall and i'm like oh my god and uh these musicians came in and they some of them had the full dress on their ceremonial outfits and they did they did chanting and they did uh drums and they used all of their instruments and it was kind of funny because i already had a general idea of the song that i wanted to produce i already had like the beat

45:49Grayson Repp:and everything and i remember looking at um one of the fifa sound guys after and i'm like i'm gonna to have to redo this whole thing because originally they weren't going to include their vocal and i just said hey i really want to hear the chants because this is you know this is something so culturally relevant and when they did it like the entire building just had chills and i'm like i have to include this so i had to go and change the key of the song because obviously since it was a remix of the fifa official song it had to be in the same key and have had some elements of that original and we were able to make it work and um yeah i'm so grateful i got to do that and i believe I'll be getting to perform it with them at FanFest in about a month's time in Vancouver.

46:27Grayson Repp:And it's just, it's honestly a dream come true. Like I said, I don't think anybody has ever done this before. And now it really feels like it's Vancouver. So that's really exciting. And the feedback I've gotten has been great. And I'm just really excited to play it live. Yeah, that's super exciting. And I imagine it was hard to find the marriage of like, you know, such a a new genre like electronic music and like this age-old tradition but it turned out incredible so congratulations on that that's exciting so much thank you yeah well um as we wrap up I'm wondering what your plans are for this world cup you said you're going to be performing at fan fest in Vancouver um are there any other things that you're doing leading up to the world cup events kicking off just preparation you know the usual work um i'm really focused on my artist project right now so it's kind of interesting because i always say that doing this sports stuff is like just what pays the bills for my actual artist project uh even though they do go hand in hand so i mean i have a bunch of music that's being released and i'm like i have a team that's that i'm working with and everybody is incredible and i'm so grateful for that but in terms of sports i don't have any sporting stuff before the world cup but i will be doing three dates at the fan fest um two headline slots and then i'll be performing with uh cascade and dead mouse and sg lewis which are like all heroes of mine so i'm so stoked for that and then you know since i'm from vancouver as well a bunch of the nightclubs that i grew up in they're like hey we gotta have you back come play some gigs here um i know like you know one of the people that are that's in charge of the city one of her best friends is um my really good friend's mom so she's like we have an activation we would love you there i've even had some friends be like hey can you come play my backyard party and i'm like i'll come like i'll be there you know because i'm down for anything like that's kind of my thing is like you know you can be like hey grace and like go play you know in berlin i love this because they're like oh just go set up shop in the park and like do a dj set and i'm down it doesn't have to be a world cup final like i'm just game to do anything so i'll probably have my schedule full with like 20 events or so and i'm really really excited unfortunately they're not going to be using stadiums or stadium djs this year in the stadium.

48:37Grayson Repp:They'll be using playlists instead. So I'm just going to be in the area and hope that I get a phone call that I get to DJ in the stadium again, because that's my bread and butter. But, you know, I'm not going to I'm not going to get my hopes up, but we'll see. Yeah. Well, I hope that they change that because it sounds like the energy of getting to do it live is a very important part of the World Cup games. But I do understand that this World Cup is going to be really different because it's hosted across Canada, the U S and Mexico. So even if they do kind of the stadium DJ thing, it would probably have to look pretty different this time.

49:09So I guess we'll see.

49:12Grayson Repp:Logistically, logistically, it's difficult to have 16 DJs. And then, you know, cause the thing is that you need to have trust in 16 people to do this. Right. And I think, um, it's a little bit late in the game now. So, you know, if there's a last minute call to get off the bench and come do it, I'm all game, but I mean, if it doesn't happen, I'm just so grateful that I get to be involved anyways. And I'm just so happy that my hometown put me on their back and they welcomed me back with open arms. And I'm just excited to rock it. Like we've been looking forward to this since the announcement that we were getting a World Cup in Vancouver.

49:40So, you know, go Canada. I hope that we go far. Go Mexico, of course. That's my team. And yeah, I'm just I'm just excited that I get to be a part of it again. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay. So as we do at the end of every episode of on the record we're gonna play a couple games if you're game for that let's do it okay so i'm very excited about this next one so we're doing spin the record which is our newer game that we do but i have put on this board a bunch of different situations and then i want you to kind of tell me how as a dj you would approach this situation so some of them are countries so imagine they're part of a world cup match and you are tasked with coming up the playlist and then a couple of them are just other sports that you've also uh dj'd for so i'm gonna spin it for you since you're across the world from me but yeah sounds good thank you okay let's see okay brazil brazil's playing in the world cup what how do you describe a brazilian crowd at the world cup and how are you going to dj for them okay they're the craziest crowd and the most they care the most like there's nothing like a south american country nothing like a brazil and argentina nothing even comes close in my opinion after playing for both teams um so again i would start with huge preparation i would call my good friend duda pavao who's an amazing um

51:08Grayson Repp:commentator and mc i believe she'll be at this world cup she's um brazilian and she's always helped me out in the past i would give her a call and say hey give me like the 20 top songs for the nation because there's obviously a lot of different songs that'll be related to their club music but this will be full-on Brazilian funk party music you know what's funny is I actually heard a story from Gilberto Silva one of their players who is world cup winner he said I think in about 2020 or sorry 2002 that the Brazilian team refused to enter the pitch until their music was played the right way for something something was going wrong I don't know exactly which World Cup, but I remember vividly him telling the story and he said, yeah, we're not going out until you guys play our music.

51:52Wow. No pressure. No pressure at all. Yeah. So I would have to really do my homework. And the big thing is that there's so many intricacies with their music. Like I said, it would have to be like there's several versions. So I would really have to do my research if there's going to be like a live version of the song they would like. there's so many different subcultures in that country as well with music so you could go from electronic to more of their funk to a little bit of like portuguese brazilian style hip-hop yeah but i can tell you one thing it will be a lot of fun every time they show up it's a home game like when brazil shows up it doesn't matter what country they're playing in it is a home game for brazil there will be a crowd full of yellow gold jerseys and it's just the the best of times because

52:37Grayson Repp:they're just such a great people and they just want to have a good time yeah well i i love hearing that i i mean obviously kind of the the running joke on the internet is you know brazilian fans will always comment on an artist post come to brazil come to brazil so i feel like um it's good to hear that they really they really bring it even if it's not even about music music is just one of the things at the stadium that day so i love that okay i'm gonna spin it again let's see where we end up let's do it all right okay let's say you're playing an nba game you're playing a game that has the la lakers in it so what would you play for the la lakers okay well 100 would have to do west coast hip-hop there's no denying that the interesting thing about los angeles is like everybody has been there and there's a lot of amazing musicians in different genres so you could go from like a Dr.

53:34Dre record into a Skrull X record because he's from Helen Park so it's like you could do both so if you could elegantly go back and forth and do all the genres I think you should like when I had a residency in Santa Monica like I would just play everything open format because people were like we want to hear this we want to hear R &B throwbacks we want to hear Vanessa Carlton into Ed Sheeran like honestly like they're they're all about all of the music so I would obviously have to do like the original town favorites like the west coast hip-hop stuff but then um yeah high energy all the way right before the tip-off and i actually um i can't remember the dj's name for the lakers but he's amazing i've seen him play a few times and i think he does a similar bit so i would definitely be uh yeah open format because like i said you can't make everybody happy but you do want to include as many genres as possible yeah okay that's great i i'm loving this i'm gonna do a couple more if that's okay let's do it yeah all right what is okay germany germany is playing in the world cup what are you playing for the interesting okay so i actually have a funny story about working with the german national team in 2022 um germany is one of those countries that when i when i moved here my assumption was is like okay we're playing cool techno and that's all we're doing it turns out they love universally loved music, like across the board.

54:56So the team request from 2022 was Can't Hold Us by Macklemore. What? And I was kind of like, what on earth are you? Because I remember when I was in university, I remember that was like when Thrift Shop came out and being from Vancouver, they're from Seattle. I was like, oh yeah, we did the party and it was fun. And then it kind of moved on and moved on to the next thing. And I hadn't played that song ever, like since 2010 or 2011 when it came out. And I was like, okay, that's interesting. I played it. They lost their minds. A few months afterwards, Lollapalooza Berlin was on and the headliner was Macklemore.

55:32And I'm like, it's 2022. But like flowers to that guy, to being absolutely a megastar in Germany still. And like I played a lot over Europe, like I played in France and Switzerland. The Swiss absolutely love it. Like when you hear can't hold us in the club, people lose their mind. Like it's very, very bizarre. like i said i was like okay i'm gonna have to switch up my thing it's gonna be a lot more a lot cooler and a lot of the places i play they want to hear like they're like can you play like kesha and flow rida black eyed peas and i'm like 100 yes because that's kind of the generation i grew up in but at the same time i'm like i wouldn't dare play this in los angeles ever again yeah and um yeah so germany i'm like okay let's do it and then they have a lot of um a lot of their german chants as well they also love a little bit of a tech like hard techno yeah hardcore fast 150 bpm stuff which is amazing i love playing that and it just gets everybody in the building moving and like they're amazing um they have amazing songs and amazing chants so i would lead with that i do some german german records german deutsch rap is massive here like there's these guys that do um that tour switzerland and germany and austria the german-speaking countries and literally sell out football stadiums and they just they're german rappers and i'm like i don't don't even really understand the music, but for them to have this big of impact here, I didn't even know the scene existed.

56:53Grayson Repp:So this is the cool part of working in sports and living abroad is, you get to figure out all these things that you never thought that didn't think were real before. Like I had no idea. Man, that's fascinating. I would have definitely expected. Yeah. What exactly what you did about Germany, but I guess it just kind of goes to show that like the Berlin scene is not the whole country it's just a very culturally relevant center of it but i mean it's kind of like saying like what you'd play for someone in new york is what you should play for them if they like live in kansas in the united states it's just like not everyone's on that way exactly and i would even argue in berlin it's like berlin west berlin east berlin east berlin is like where the techno and the cool clubs and all those are like the cool clubs are yeah in the west it's like they just want to have a good time and listen to music that they know and they love and they want to sing along.

57:45And I'm like, I'm all for that. And it's totally changed my life as a DJ. Like when I come home and I play in North America now, I'm like, sometimes I'm going to mix in like I got a feeling because you know what? It's universally loved. And if people say they don't like it, I think they're just trying to be too cool. And I think that inside and then on the inside, they actually do like that record. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. People love familiarity. Okay, I'm going to spin it again. Let's see what we end up with.

58:13okay nigeria nigeria okay we're going afro beat all the way like i um in 2022 i dj'd a match it wasn't nigeria um i can't remember the nation but i would argue that the african fans have the most rhythm out of all the fan bases they dance in unison and they are arguably the loudest as well because they bring all of their cultural relevant or their instruments with them and they are just there to have an absolutely good time so anything african caribbean the that afro beat tempo which is the same as latin pop which essentially you know ricky martin and shakira started in north america that's what they do there and they're just there to have a good time and shake it so i'm going all afro beat the whole time and like again even in berlin if you go to a hip-hop club they're just playing afro beat and latin pop the whole time and i'm like i didn't even know this

59:09Grayson Repp:existed until i moved here so it's been you know it's so cool i love it okay we'll do one more okay okay sounds good all right

59:21okay canada what are you playing for canada canada yes finally oh okay okay well i don't know if you can see this guy above me drizzy drake of course ice man may 15th shout out to him that's like i think the music that you listen to from 16 to 24 is really calcified in your brain is like the best music so i feel like i grew up with him so i always try to throw in like a headlines uh the weekend of course crew love stuff like that anything house of balloons i absolutely love but there's a lot of amazing classic rock from canada too um one song that really sticks out to me is called uh raise a Little Hell by Trooper.

1:00:01And this was from an album that came out in 1978. It was called Thick as Thieves. And like I said, my dad was a hockey coach when I was a little kid. So I used to go to the arena and I'd get to hear all these like ACDC, Trooper, Def Leppard songs. And this one really stuck out to me as probably like the big anthem. And the fact that they end up being Canadian is just incredible. And I've actually played it after a few Canadian matches where they've won just

1:00:24Grayson Repp:because it's such a high energy track. And then, you know, we have some of the best artists we have, again the weekend Justin Bieber you name it we got him so there's no um shortage of hits to play after a Canadian win I love that and also I mean given there's some tension between Canada and the U.S. right now do you think Canadians are leaning more and more into listening to Canadian music I I like to think so I want to say yes I mean just because I live abroad now I'm not entirely well actually no that's not true my friends and I we are just such big fans of Drake we love him and we've all just been sending each other memes for the last like three months about this album coming out drake memes just or just like old videos of him because it's like i said like when you're at that pivotal age of 16 to 22 24 there's so many big life moments that happen so many paradigm shifts and i feel like for me personally he was there as that guy because he's almost also a similar age to me and i'm like i just grew up and i understood what he was talking about because he's like oh like this street in toronto i'm like oh i've been there or like he talks about going to like pierre's champagne lounge in vancouver i literally used to have a residency there so it's like yeah i love it i like that like you know i mean if we can't if we had to like we could how much time do you got like we could talk about kendrick lamar versus drake for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours i'm always going to be team canada in that sense but um yeah i think i mean we're so we're so close to that like i think there's a lot of crossover and i'm just really proud to be canadian and have like some of the biggest artists on earth you know again beaver who just crushed coachella uh the weekend drake alanis morselt is playing like oh my god like it's just uh it's a it's a good time to be a canadian musician and uh it's just um cool to be where we're from and i don't know like i said i'm kind of out of the mix because i live over here now but um music's the universal language of love and i think that's what actually could bring us together rather than fighting and like getting mad at each other on twitter let's just all listen to music and have some good time and have a good time totally totally Just don't play Marvin's room.

1:02:21That'll bring down the energy a little bit too much. I think with one last thing before you sign off. Yeah, Drake. I don't think he's ever performed that live. He's coming to Berlin. Obviously, I buy tickets the day they come out. He plays like four nights in a row. I told my wife, Sophia, I'm like, listen, like we're going to this no matter what. Like we will. I will. If it doesn't matter what cost I'm going. I've seen him like 10 times already. And he comes on stage. And this guy, the first song of the night is Marvin's room. No way. And I lost my mind because I'm like, I don't think he's ever done this live.

1:02:55And to come and open your tour in Europe with this record is just like, man. And it's just such a classic. Like, it's just like I have so many inside jokes with friends I grew up with. Like, are you drunk right now? Because that's like one of like the vocal snippets in the song. Like we always text each other that stuff. So I'm like, I was thrilled. So I don't mind Marvin's room. I mean, maybe it's due for a remix. I don't know. But I think like that's the cool thing about him is he's got so he's got such a big range. and um you can you know you can cry to some music you can drive to it you can get cranked up with your friends and have a great time with it um yeah so this turned into an episode about drake thought it would go this way eventually yeah yeah well okay okay so to end things off we always do this game called what would you cue and so basically i'm just gonna have you do a rapid fire picking one song per prompt here um so what would you cue to take you back to your childhood I feel like it might be Drake, but.

1:03:48It would be raised a little hell by Trooper, like I spoke about earlier, because I was five years old in this hockey arena, and I listened to it every weekend. And now it's come around full circle in my life again where I get to play live. So that's the one for that, for sure. Love it. What would you cue to represent your favorite era of music? That would be Drake, for sure. I think that era from 2011 till 2018, just because I was at that unique age, coming of age music, headlines, Drake, Crew Love with The Weeknd, anything from that House of Balloons record. But yeah, I would definitely be Drake.

1:04:24And I would argue nothing was the same. Like I have the artwork back here or Take Care or even his first album. you know i think the first i think when over came out from so far gone i listened to it because you used to be able to see on itunes when you could let you could see how many times you played the one song played it 76 times in a row my best friend kyle and i played it 76 times in a row when it came out i'm manifesting for you a dj slot at the top of a drake tour at some point so i'm like yeah i gotta call zach bia and be like yo dude like i'm like that's that's my stuff There's always a song for any mood, you know, from him.

1:05:00So yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay. What would you cue to represent the best concert you've ever been to? Probably I Fall Apart by Post Malone. I would say he, as a performer, he is in my top three, 100%. His angelic voice is like nothing like I've ever heard before. And I try to tell all of my friends that aren't avid listeners of him just to go see him live because he sounds better live. and he's incredible on all his albums of course but that song live the emotion that he puts into all of the songs in his set list that one specifically like brings me to tears every single time and i've never met anybody that's walked away from a post-mallon concert that hasn't been an immediate fan and i think because of that song like you know and i even know from a dj perspective there was a couple tours i went on that i had like a edit of i fall apart and everybody saying every word at the top of their lungs at all times.

1:05:55So I love it. I love it. Well, that's a perfect place to end this. Grayson rep. Thank you so much for coming to on the record. Thank you, Kristen. It was absolutely lovely. All right. Thank you so much to Grayson rep for joining me to talk about his career, working with FIFA, the Olympics, and so many more sporting events. And thank you for listening to this week's episode of on the record. If you liked today's show, give us a follow on Instagram or on our brand new Tik TOK page at billboard on the record where you can find new clips of the show every single week. We'd also appreciate it if you rated our show on your favorite podcast platform because all these things help on the record grow bigger and better than ever.

1:06:31Again, I'm your host, Kristen Robinson, and tune in next week for another peek behind the curtain of the music business. I'll see you then.

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