When a fast-rising new artist has one of their songs used as the theme song for a major sporting event, that would typically be a positive experience. Unfortunately, that was not totally the case for world-famous actress, producer, and singer Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
Back in 2012, the NFL Network decided to use Chopra Jonas‘ song “In My City” as the theme song for its weekly Thursday Night Football broadcast after debuting the full song on the network early in the fall. The song itself was popular globally, selling more than 130,000 copies in its first week and going certified triple platinum, but it did not receive a warm reception from NFL fans.
During a recent interview with CNN anchor Chris Wallace, Chopra Jonas opened up about the racist response the NFL Network received from fans as a result of their decision to use her song for the Thursday Night Football theme.
“NFL Network got a lot of tweets and stuff. Or, you know, things saying, ‘Who’s she? Who’s this person? And why should she be on American TV’ and like, ‘football should be an American person,’ it was just like, very confusing, because I’m, I was just an artist with a song that they liked,” Chopra Jonas told Wallace on CNN.
Chopra Jonas admits that while she “does wear blinders,” she was impacted by the criticism. But ultimately, she knows that at the end of the day, she won – not the hateful critics.
“It hits you every time. It hits you. All of it hits, criticism, the fact that, you know, my job requires me to be dissected, and you know, microscopely. Everything I say, my home, my family, everything is looked at,” Chopra Jonas said. “But that’s the nature of the beast. And I’ve done it for 23 years now. What I’m not expecting is nature to change. You’ve got to start protecting yourself. And I started doing that many years ago. So yes, of course, it was hurtful. But I’m someone who does wear blinders. I’m not…and I believe in, you know, letting my work speak for itself. And the best shut down to people like that, who said that I didn’t belong is to belong. And today, I have, you know, the number one series in the world on the show. And I’m sitting here talking to Chris Wallace, so who won?”
Over the years, Chopra Jonas – who is married to Nick Jonas of The Jonas Brothers – has become one of the most influential and iconic individuals on the planet. The winner of the Miss World Miss pageant, Chopra Jonas was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time back in 2016 while Forbes listed her among the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2017 and 2018. In 2022, Chopra Jonas was named to the BBC 100 Women list.
