It's no secret Lorde's biggest hit and the Kansas City baseball team share a name. The New Zealand artist based "Royals" off a photograph of Hall of Famer George Brett, and in March Brett sent the Grammy winner a jersey.
Well San Francisco is not going to stand for it. Specifically two Bay Area radio stations, who made a bold move ahead of the World Series that will pit their Giants against Lorde's team:
No offense, Lorde, but for the duration of the World Series, KFOG Radio will be a "Royals"-free zone. We're sure... http://t.co/7uvseCjb03
— KFOGRadio (@KFOGRadio) October 17, 2014Thanks 4 your comments! #Lorde #Royals will be removed from the @965KOIT playlist until the end of the World Series #GoGiants...
— 96.5 koit (@965KOIT) October 17, 2014Now before we give these stations too much credit, this isn't exactly the summer of 2013 here, so the ban won't force DJs to do a full reprogram; a look at one random recent day's playlists showed rock station KFOG and adult contemporary station KOIT running the song just once apiece.
Still, it's not insignificant to pull a song no matter how old it is, and it sure did resonate with Kansas City station 99.7 The Point:
Read your story about @965KOIT banning #Royals. We are NOT taking this sitting down in #KansasCity >>> http://t.co/Hx8XrLrkk4
— 99.7 The Point (@997ThePoint) October 19, 2014Hey @peoplemag - we aren't banning They Might be Giants...but we ARE doing this in #KansasCity >>> http://t.co/saNDKeyiHK #Royals
— 99.7 The Point (@997ThePoint) October 20, 2014That links to a press release saying the station WILL be playing "Royals" -- every hour, on the hour, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the day of Game 1 (Tuesday).
Good thing the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles both didn't reach the Series. We couldn't handle the endless loop of banning then playing then banning then playing again of Lynyrd Skynyrd's ubiquitous anthem "Free Bird."
H/T Bleacher Report
MORE AWESOME STORIES
• Scottish soccer players bring Randy Orton "RKO" meme to life