I still have ninety-three cents
2026 Mix 15: The Pop World Cup approaches (omgomgomg), plus returning faves FLVCKKA, Tkay Maidza, Didi B, Chley, DJ Kawest, Baimint, and...Fetty Wap?
It’s the most wonderful time of every four years—when the People’s Pop Polls turn into the Pop World Cup, a music tournament where players nominate songs from countries participating in the World Cup. Some poll participants are assigned countries to “manage,” meaning nominating one track from the country and offering other suggestions. Each country gets three songs, and all of the songs then go head to head in a series of matches that resembles the World Cup’s match structure.
The preponderance of music will usually be not in English, with lots of potential for finding new music from new places. One of these tracks, Kat Stevens’s nomination from Austria, leads the mix this week. I have disqualified on release year grounds my favorite golden beat on a quick skim: via LondonLee, a 2025 song from French group Astéréotypie called “Cheese Bad Girl.” However, there is no restriction on sharing that song in the intro, so here you go!
I think the Pop World Cup and occasional Not In English polls (or comparable themes with a de-emphasis on well-known Western Anglophone pop) always do a little extra educative work without feeling like a chore, as people look into the regional context of music, learn new artists and genres, and tend to have more patience and enthusiasm for unfamiliar forms and other languages. I seek that stuff out in every poll, but the reason that the polls in general work is because you don’t have to seek it out; that’s just one of many ways to engage.
Which is to say, I will also probably be voting for “Say It Right” by Nelly Furtado, representing Canada and one of my favorite songs of all time. Join in the fun if you’d like—it’s run on Bluesky but all voting happens on Google Forms, so you can participate without having a Bluesky account. Tom also keeps an ongoing list of live matches off of social media on his website.
Here are my two noms as the manager of the Saudi Arabian team. They will join Jesper Haglund’s nom, Seera’s “Shams” from last year—a great find, and better than any of my potential third picks to round out the team.
Asayel: Asliyah (Saudi Arabia, 2024)
There has been a small TikTok-based Saudi Arabian pop boom in the past few years, which is where I found both of these songs. Rapper and social media personality Asayel came to fame and local “notoriety” in 2020 with her single “Bnt Mecca” (“Mecca Girl”) after government authorities decided the video was sacrilegious and ordered her to be arrested. (I originally found her by searching artists targeted by the Saudi government.) In 2024 she released this infectious and deceptively tour-de-force performance over Neptunes click ‘n’ cluck.
Amy Roko: Hia (Saudi Arabia, 2023)
Amy Roko is a pseudonymous online comedy personality who started way back on Vine and moved on to TikTok. She does a lot of media and advocacy for progressive niqabi practices and is worth looking into (I liked this interview). Her rapping is a bit of a side project but she’s good at it.
I like how both of these tracks have a certain sunniness to them that you don’t find as frequently in other countries’ current rap scenes, which in my experience tend to get stuck in painfully classicist boom bap or else sweat a little to keep up with more contemporary and “hyper-” trends. I appreciate their effervescence in the face of a threatening and oppressive environment.
1. Dani Lia: Schwindelig (omgomgomg)
Austria
The real Renee Rapp? Dizzy, indeed — a formidable opponent in the Pop World Cup.
2. FLVCKKA, Jrkv, NEOBUCHONISMO, LP Ent: Brazil
Mexico
This is the second Brazilian funk-indebted track I’ve shared from FLVCKKA this year, this one much more direct, though the lightly trippy piano and synth string wash in the background is an inspired touch.
3. Quỳnh Anh Shyn: Girl Phố
Vietnam
V-pop is still firing on all cylinders. This one’s a fun genre-mash, classic house organ and rubbery disco bass line gradually revealing themselves, restless in the best way.
4. Tkay Maidza: Must Be
United States
Tkay Maidza is one of those artists I continue to listen to whenever I see her—for about ten years now. Occasionally she comes through: really liked her Pixies cover on a 4AD comp, and now here’s what sounds like a periodic reintroduction to her somewhat chameleonic charm.
5. Didi B f. Zlatan, Chley: Je m’appelle
Côte D’Ivoire/Nigeria/South Africa
An interesting collaboration here—Ivorian star Didi B is first billed but the collaborators pull the sound away from Ivorian pop and toward Nigerian/South African hybrid amabeats. Gets more juice out of the combination than that particular pipeline tends to provide these days.
6. Tera Kòrá, FS Green, Freezy: Get Busy
Curaçao-Netherlands/Saint Lucia
From what I can tell this is a pretty good hipster simulacrum of Caribbean dancehall from a Curaçao-born and Rotterdam-based DJ and producer—could only find a reliable link to the song on Bandcamp.
7. DJ Kawest, Forever Music: Konpa Paradise 4 - Wasn’t Me Remix
Guadeloupe-France
DJ Kawest’s Konpa Paradise series continues to provide enjoyable twists on and perversions of pop classics, none getting close to the breathtaking “Get Ur Freak On” head-fake of part 2. But I appreciate that each one stands on its own despite messing around with an outsized sample.
8. XYVRL, Ivo Impreso: Scottie T (Remix)
Philippines
A nimble romp through a desert of outdated pop culture references—I caught “beast mode,” Tarantino, and Finding Nemo in quick succession in XYVRL’s chorus, all of which still somehow best Ivo Impreso’s verse.
9. kuudere, Reikko: Summer ‘16
Japan
No idea where this satisficing Japanese landfill hyperpop came from, have been searching my playlists for ten minutes now and see no trace of it. Maybe it was an algorithm gift? It happens sometimes! (Not often.)
10. DJ DEIVÃO, mc pl alves: Como Que Vou Acreditar no Amor
Brazil
11. DJ Lopez, Mc Gw, Mc Lekão, Conexão do Funk: 125 Bpm do Xxx
Brazil
12. Staffan Lindberg, Mc G7: Botâo
Sweden/Brazil
13. DJ Mandrake 100% Original, MC LIPEX: Piano do Mal
Brazil
Brazilian funk block! DJ DEIVÃO fits farty oompah into hard clave; my radar gun confirms “125 BPM do Xxx” goes its advertised speed; a Swedish interloper smuggles some dubstep into a particularly uncool but still successful hybrid; and my favorite of the bunch is phonk/funk that pounds out a salsa-like piano figure and hits you over the head like…not a hammer, but maybe one of those padded Whac-A-Mole mallets.
14. DJ Aka-m, John Trouble, Kukupela: Fim de Semana
Angola
I really need some better leads on Angolan pop — might as well plug Jonathan Bogart’s 2025 list again and follow some of his leads myself.
15. VICKY: Bunte Scheine
Germany
More German viral novelty! This one’s relatively clean, too, just lots of bright bills in baggy jeans.
16. Baimint: คนมันเฟี้ยว
Thailand
I compared Baimint indirectly to MILLI in her first appearance on a mix last year, more in charm than skill (I wrote: “sounds like a character that MILLI would have impersonated for a few seconds in a verse in ‘Sudpang!’”). Still true!
17. User116: 杀
China
18. uzi9ine: Come Here
US
19. 09PEAS, Artahe: Lightboy
France
Noisy block! I assumed all three of these were from billdifferen’s March roundup, but I see that only the low-rent French house-pop from 09PEAS came directly from the list.
Uzi9ine was featured, but he has gone viral enough with his dank DMV hit that it is now lodged permanently in most of the rap recap playlists I pull from. Unlike Skino’s “300B” last year, it does not sound quite enough like “the rapper is trying to stay on beat while he and everything around him fall down the stairs.”
That leaves Shanghai-born and London-based User116 with the rare hypertrap assault that lands for me, one from Ryan Dee’s rolling songs list.
20. THEFOODLORD, Bill Rothko: Fancy Clown Husband
US/UK
One of the handful of retro-ish backpackers I single out in a given year, congratulations to THEFOODLORD (569 monthly listeners on Spotify) for this honor.
21. Fetty Wap f. Divinity, Ymanie: White Roses
US
I always really liked Fetty Wap’s plaintive honk when he broke through on “Trap Queen,” and on this one he sounds like T-Pain shedding the Autotune, revealing that there’s always been a Pretty Voice(TM) under the pretty voice. I like it best when you still get a few glimmers of the old honk, though.
22. Praed: Assarab
Lebanon
A lot of short songs this week, so there was plenty of time for this avant-jazz Lebanese group to go long with a frenetic groove that starts somewhere between Sam Gendel and Polysics and finds plenty of other routes to try out on its way to minute eight.
23. Rish NK: Idichakka
India
Curious if YouTube is deceiving me about the popularity of an Indian film tie-in song, from the Mollywood film Derby,1 whose official trailer has 2.6 million views even though there are only about 3K on this upload from the soundtrack. The song has a slapped-together charm, sounds like it’s augmenting the wind section with kazoos but still gets an actual flute solo in there.
24. Talal Fattal, Samini: Black Stars Straight to the Top [2006]
Ghana
Ending things with the non-pop World Cup, a time capsule celebration of Ghana making the tournament for the first time in 2006. The song sounds like it was recorded twenty years prior to that.
That’s it! Until next time, go check out the only World Cup you are guaranteed to feel good about participating in.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from VICKY: Bunte Scheine (“ich hab' noch dreiundneunzig Cent”)
Referring to Malayalam-language films produced in Kerala.
I love the doubled piano on "Piano Do Mal."