Jay-Z and Alicia Keys rocked it out for NYC a couple of years ago with Empire State of Mind. Of course whenever a song is made representing a city, state or country a dozen remixes of other cities, states or countries have to be made. (RE: California Gurls etc.)


In 2009 Ron Dias made a remix of Empire State for Toronto and recently some Vancouverites (Ellery Vandooyeweert, Charlene Havlicek, and Kevin Pavlovic) made a tribute to their city with their own.




Now who better to pick the winning video than me? I live in neutral territory (and when I say that I mean I have an equal disdain for each place that comes from the inferiority complex that all Calgarians seem to carry) and I live to judge absolutely everything.

The TO vid gets a bonus point for being made 2 years ago. They were on the ball, while the Vancouver peeps waited until they had the Olympics and failed to bring home Lord Stanley to make a tribute of their own. Vancouver patriotism is giving Toronto a run for their money of late...I don't think I like it.

Jay Z
Well clearly neither was Jay incarnate. On one side you have Moby wearing sunglasses and the other you have a dude who thinks it is appropriate to shave 'Toronto' into his hair. As far as the rapping goes I would give the point to Toronto...although after the hair thing (the shaving, which isn't genetic and can't be helped)...by default this point goes to Moby.
Vancouver: 1  Toronto: 0

Alicia Keys
Again, didn't 'even come close...they equally failed at sounding remotely close to Keys or in the realm of 'good.' But if I had to choose a winner I would pick Toronto..Van's sounded almost auto-tuned and understandably the piano in the street was an ode to the original video but she did not rock it hard like Alicia - therefore she looked like a complete idiot.
Vancouver: 1  Toronto: 1

Lyrics
Any song that has the following line will win any competition that I ever had to judge:
"Whenever Nickleback is played a little part of me dies inside."
Vancouver: 2  Toronto: 1

Video
Vancouver paid tribute to the original best and technically it was the superior film. I have to roll with the black and white.
Vancouver: 3  Toronto: 1

The grand total (including the extra point for Toronto having almost 2 years on Vancouver's video) has a score of 3 - 2 for Vancouver. Long live the West.

XOXO
Jes...