We’ll veer away from Indie Legends Of The Past, but it won’t help the score any…
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[4.11]
Iain Mew: The return of the Muse Olympics model, applied to a slightly different genre! It’s multi-disciplinary, even; a lung-busting Carrie Underwood handing over to a Ludacris acrostic is the moment the 110 per cent commitment to the ridiculous/serious dualism really pays off.
[8]
Alex Clifton: If 2017 was the year of Turgid Pop Music, 2018 is the year of Collaborations Nobody Wanted. Carrie Underwood has a beautiful, strong voice, but you’d never know it here; the production makes her reedy and nasal. I love Luda, but he’s phoning it in here; his best appearances always have him sound like he’s having fun, which this song lacks. The chorus also reminds me of Jessica Simpson’s “Irresistible“, which is not the early 2000s-throwback we needed. The whole thing sounds much better if you speed it up on YouTube to about 1.5x its normal speed to inject some much-needed life, but I’m bored as hell otherwise.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Blaring like a trumpet during a battle charge, Carrie Underwood affirms the clichés of self-empowerment; she could be Mary J. Blige in 2006, for whom “The Champion” may have intended, who knows. It would explain Luda.
[3]
Katie Gill: Just because you can make a mediocre, play-by-numbers “we do sports and I’m a winner!” song for your football tournament, Olympic broadcast, or American football tournament doesn’t mean that you should make that mediocre play-by-numbers song. There’s at least fifty of these out here and TSJ has reviewed at least five of ’em; just reuse one of those. Points only given because Luda knowing how to spell is so beautifully dumb that I can’t hate it.
[5]
Will Adams: Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter” but with platitudes instead of stakes.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Honestly, I’m not a particularly massive Carrie Underwood fan? I just know that she deserves better than to make a “Pink ft. Eminem” song that offers less grating qualities.
[2]
Thomas Inskeep: Would-be inspirational schlock produced by Jim Jonsin (who usually makes slick hip-hop records) that’s way beneath Carrie’s pipes. Ludacris makes sense here, because, let’s face it, his best days are far behind him. (And his rap break is truly embarrassing.) But Underwood should know better.
[2]
Juana Giaimo: Sport singles are never good, but “Champion” is even worse because it encourages competition and the importance of winning instead of celebrating other values often rescued in songs like these — hey, a good idea would be comradeship; after all American football is a group sport. But Carrie Underwood wants to be the big star with her screaming and melody-less vocals, which definitely sounds too forced. In case this wasn’t awful enough, Ludacris suddenly appears out of nowhere interrupting the flow of the song just to add some more dull verses about being the best.
[3]
Stephen Eisermann: This shouldn’t be good. The lyrics are cliched, Carrie’s stellar voice has been flattened to remove any hint of twang, and Ludacris literally recites an acrostic poem for 80 per cent of his verse, but lo and behold — this is a banger. I first heard this at the gym and I have never been so proud to lower the weight on the bar as I was getting ready to bench. I quickly threw it on repeat through my set and even though I’m sure I benched the least amount of weight at the moment in the gym, this song had me walking around with my head held high. Dare I say, it achieved its intended result? I found motivation.
[8]