The Egyptian King Is Happy to Trade His Shirt for a Can of Pepsi

Every now and again you receive that music brief that you just must nail at all costs. For me this was it when hearing that Pepsi was creating a spot along with my hero Mo Salah. As a devoted red a.k.a. Liverpool fan I had to make sure we found the absolute perfect song for this.

We knew this spot needed to have a sense of effortless fun while leaning in on Latin & reggaeton sensibilities. Think flourishes of deep bass complemented well by the light playfulness of the vocals and a main riff that has just the right amount of disruption to grab attention without feeling overeating. 

Easy right?

We reached out to some of our choice publishers, labels and sync agents to see if they had anything they’d like to put forward. We also put our best Dembow goggles on with an internal search. 

After our first round we had some incredible feedback on a piece of music by a band called ‘Total Ape’. 

We then saw the edit, our first layback made it clear, this works incredibly well. 

The beat sat perfectly behind the swinging shots. The bass underscored the constant movement throughout this awesome spot. There are also plenty of glitchy visual effects that marry well to the instrumental sounds. 

The minimal lyrics complimented the female hero very well. A sassy female vocal with a lyrical message about getting things done. These vocals definitely lifted our cheeky character to new heights. 

So far so good? Um wait.

As everyone was gravitating towards the track, something was missing – a bounce, a step up or perhaps vocal flourish that represents the playfulness we see on screen, so we reached out to Musica Publishing who look after Total Ape with a plan.

And in true Dembow spirit the bass was lowered to a grittier level, and the playful vocals even brighter and more playful as a perfect contrast. The two polar opposite elements complimented each other perfectly in a lovely soup of balanced naughty and niceness. 

After a final delivery we had managed to align everyone’s opinion and feedback and we had a final edit!

It was a great pleasure working with Arthur & Martha, as well as the creatives at Copa90 for sharing this brief with us. The communication, detail in briefing and full process was inspiring to say the least. 

A special thanks also to Musica Publishing / Musica Records & Total Ape for helping us bring this vision into reality.

Ottilia Kjulsten is music supervisor at Theodore / Wake The Town