DJ Khaled kicked off the Overwatch League finals on Saturday July 28 at the Barclays Center in New York, and it was a memorable performance, to say the least.
Typically, musical performances at esports events are met with sceptical receptions, and the announcement of Khaled’s appearance was no different, but he is likely the biggest name to have kicked off an esports event.
The problem though, and this goes for any DJ Khaled performance really, is that he himself doesn’t actually sing, rap or even DJ for that matter.
His show is instead simply him playing songs which he ‘curated’ – hits such as “I’m the One” with Justin Beiber, or “Wild Thoughts” with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller.
And all his big hits were on show, plus Khaled doing his very best to hype up the crowd and pull off his best dance moves.
One of the best clips from the performance is this one where the camera pans to a young boy in the audience, who looks totally bewildered as to what is going on.
And because the audience had young kids like this in attendance, many of Khaled’s songs with explicit lyrics had to be ‘adjusted’ to be age appropriate.
That meant relying on the crowd to take over at certain points – but with limited success.
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It wasn’t all bad however, as Khaled’s foot work didn’t go unnoticed by the camera operator, and this clip of his slick moves may well become a meme soon enough.
Finally, the clip that sums up the performance really. As DJ Khaled is right in the swing of things, he takes the risk of asking the audience to complete the chorus for him.
Unsurprisingly, the crowd struggles to form the words of the hook, and an awkward chant seems to break out instead.
Regardless of Khaled’s performance, the show itself went on, and what a show it was. The London Spitfire came out on top, winning Season One, after being one of the lowest seeds in the playoffs.
When season 2 finals come around, it will be intriguing to see which celebrity musical performance Blizzard puts on, if they decide to put one on at all.