Why do the public choose sides?

If in the last two weeks someone you know has denied knowing about Shakira’s latest hit, they may be a snob. It is hardly credible that a functional adult with a smartphone, a television at home, a radio in the car, or who stops to chat in a bar, is unaware of the missile in the form of a single that fell on Gerard Piqué at dawn on January 11. ex-soccer player and ex-partner of the Colombian artist. With more than 200 million views on YouTube and almost 130 on Spotify, the song #53 Music Sessionswith the Argentine DJ Bizarrap, has imposed such hegemony on the conversational agenda that it deserves a reflection of a psycho-sociological nature.

Why is this song on everyone’s lips? Why would people who did not show special interest in a media break take sides for one or the other and engage in such vehement battles? Pilar Conde, clinical psychologist and technical director of Origen, bets on the projection and mirror theses: “It is easy to connect with issues as elementary as love, fidelity or respect because they are in our day to day. When the subjects are famous we allow ourselves to talk about it more easily; It’s not so much what happened to me but how that other people’s experience connects with me. And this phenomenon is useful to know what your red lines are and to what extent you are flexible. As if it were a mirror: we see ourselves in that situation and something is activated in us”.

This phenomenon is useful to know what your red lines are and to what extent you are flexible. as if it were a mirror

Pilar CondeClinical psychologist

Arantxa Coca is a doctor in Psychology and specialist in relationships. Her last book More love please (The Sphere), collects situations parallel to the one we are contemplating. In this case and as an observer, she raises a prior question: “We don’t know if this song corresponds to a real time line: Does Shakira speak today or the one from last August? Of course, a possible commercial strategy cannot be ignored as a motor for the single. And I’m not talking about money but about marketing. In any case, she’s lived through this phase, she knows what she’s talking about, she’s hit the feeling three months ago or today.”

If I had decided to release this song for reasons not marketing but psychological, they would respond to the most hostile phase of a breakup, anger

Arantxa CocaPsychologist specializing in couples therapy

“If I had decided to release this song for reasons not marketing but psychological, they would respond to the most hostile phase of a breakup, anger. Feelings of revenge emerge in it, negative premonitions (everything will go wrong for you) the past is reviewed with resentful optics (I gave you all this, look what you’re missing) and other people are attacked (mother-in-law, family, third parties if any). The possibility of empowering oneself through anger also appears. Now there is a need to win, to show that it is the other who loses”.

Both professionals agree that Piqué’s joking reaction, giving away Casio watches to employees of King’s League or appearing in public driving a Twingo, show that the song has not been indifferent to him. “He has resorted to humor and it may well be to downplay it, although could it be considered mockery? Of course, she does not feel indifference. If you don’t want to talk about something, it would be best not to enter, not to offer information and not to provide feedback”, points out Pilar Conde. For her part, Arantxa Coca believes that the former soccer player resorts to a defensive mechanism with a background: “I show that it doesn’t hurt me and I even collaborate with your joke to show a situation of emotional superiority: not only can you not hurt me but I might even get a certain benefit”.

Maybe as a defensive mechanism

The psychologists agree: Piqué shows with his jokes that the song has not been indifferent to him

Pere Bacardit He is a professor of marketing at EAE Business School, at the UPF Barcelona School of Management and an expert in social network analysis. He believes that the song is an undeniable success for three reasons: “Shakira and Bizarrap have left nothing to chance; in fact, Bizarrap has studied digital marketing and Shakira is characterized at a professional level for having everything very calculated, controlled and measured. This is the premise to achieve the viral phenomenon that we are seeing, not in vain the single was released on the night of January 11 to boost its peak on the 12th, which is Thursday. And we know that it is the best day for content uploaded to YouTube. Everything is a strategy measured to the millimeter”.

We know that Thursday is the best day to upload content to YouTube. Everything is a strategy measured to the millimeter

Pere BacarditMarketing professor at EAE Business School and UPF

As for the content of the song, it has everything to be a success: hurtful messages, irony, hints, a language that connects with a cross-sectional audience and not just generation Z, explains Professor Bacardit. “At the level of strategy in social networks, Shakira has managed to generate mystery and feed curiosity about what she thought of her ex’s lover to concentrate everything in this song. It has also been very relevant to use commercial brands, two luxury and two affordable or ‘mainstream’: with this it is possible for these firms to act as speakers for the song. And others join the bandwagon with ‘marketing in real time’. In this sense, Piqué has been very intelligent with his jokes and has known how to make the most of the single to boost their already successful King’s League. Bypassing traditional media, such as television or radio, and launching it exclusively on digital media, they also avoid being asked: it is a one-way message and they are the only protagonists”.