- Rapper Drake will have his logo displayed on the front of FC Barcelona's shirts for its match against Real Madrid.
- The gesture celebrates Drake becoming the first artist to get to 50 billion Spotify streams.
Rapper Drake will have his logo displayed on the front of FC Barcelona's shirts for the club's match against rival Real Madrid on Sunday to celebrate the fact that he is the first artist ever to get to 50 billion Spotify streams.
Drake's signature owl logo will replace the Spotify logo normally on the front of Barcelona's shirt; the streaming music service has been its sponsor since March.
Barcelona's players will also warm-up for the match in jerseys with the number 50 on the back to mark the 35-year-old musician's achievement.
"We were really excited to celebrate one of the biggest games of the year and mark Drake's milestone," said Marc Hazan, Spotify's Vice President of Partnerships.
"We've always said that we want this partnership to be a celebration of fans, players, and artists on a global stage — and there's no bigger stage than El Clásico."
The most recent derby match between Barcelona and Real Madrid – known as El Clásico – was watched in more than 180 countries by over 650 million people, according to AS.
—FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 14, 2022
Barcelona's Vice President of Marketing, Juli Guiu, said: "Our alliance with Spotify goes beyond a mere commercial relationship. It is a strategic relationship through which we seek to bring together two worlds that can arouse emotion, namely music and football."
Drake, who has achieved 11 number-one albums on the Billboard 200, wrote on Instagram: "This doesn't feel real, but it is."
While having a musician's marque on its shirt is a first for Barcelona, plenty of other soccer clubs have done so before.
In May 2021, Ed Sheeran signed a one-year deal to sponsor the men's and women's shirts of his boyhood club Ipswich Town.
This season, Irish side Bohemians has an away shirt which features Bob Marley's face, while last season, Dutch side Ajax had a third kit which also paid tribute to the reggae icon.
—Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) October 24, 2018
—Ipswich Town FC (@IpswichTown) October 11, 2022
The Rolling Stones has its own line of Paris Saint-Germain merchandise, including shirts, while West Ham United has previously collaborated with rock legends Iron Maiden.