ESPN pins down a musical collaboration with DJ Khaled

ESPN signed a musical alliance with DJ Khaled for Monday Night Football, where the artist selects music for the show’s ads in both English and Spanish. For the game between Los Angeles Chargers and the New Orleans Saints, that took place on Monday the 12th and was part of the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, DJ Khaled chose the song Amarillo by J Balvin.

Michelle Bella, ESPN’s VP of Sports Marketing, explains that the network’s Marketing group had discussions with the NFL to know what they wanted to do for the Hispanic Heritage Month. The decision was decided to use the music as a cultural point. As they reviewed the roster of music artists, they agreed that DJ Khaled was the right fit for the alliance. “He’s an incredible artist, he’s a producer and a great person,” she says.

The collaboration with Khaled will include five games. The first was with the song Popstar by Drake and Justin Bieber, and for the second game was of the one of J Balvin. “The nature of the collaboration is that the music track appears in the promo, on social media, and is amplified throughout the week throughout the ESPN ecosystem. It’s very 360,” stated Bella.

“This is an evolution. We love Khaled because he is a multicultural artist. We are always looking for a way to increase audiences and bring in new audiences. He is a very inclusive and culturally relevant artist,” she added.