Which is more surprising: that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer behind Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Evita and Starlight Express, knows what “WAP” is, or the fact that the 72-year-old living legend has a TikTok? In another moment of how 2020 is wild, Sir Andrew posted a video of him “dancing” – to put it loosely – to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s cart-topping hit on Aug. 28. After watching him bop around, we cut to his organ, where he blends in the opening notes from the overture to his Broadway smash, Phantom of the Opera. “Phantom of the WAPera ft. the man himself,” Andrew’s team (Team ALW), captioned the video, which had amassed 286k likes, and nearly 2 million views in two days.
Sir Andrew has only had his TikTok for over two months now, and he’s filled it mostly with music. He’s played compositions from his body of work — “All I Ask Of You” from Phantom, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” from Evita, “Memory” from Cats – and fans have found it quite delightful. “Hello, TikTok! Andrew would love to see you singing along with Any Dream Will Do using duet!” his team captioned his first TikTok. Maybe Megan, 25, or Cardi, 27, could jump on and offer their own remix of his song? Or would that break the internet too much?
@officialalw Phantom of the WAPera ft. the man himself – TeamALW #phantom #cardib #mashup #music #theatre #remix
Cardi recently gave her approval to another “WAP” mash-up. When Twitter user @kordeilogy shared an oneboredjeu mash-up of “WAP” with Rihanna’s 2010 hit, “S&M.” It’s surprising how good the two songs melded together. Cardi even said so. “I like this…ALOT” she said while retweeting the remix. As T-Pain, that’s the power of the remix.
Following the release of “WAP,” a lot of people took umbrage at the song’s sexual content. Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro was trolled relentlessly when he read the lyrics out loud, giving them an “evil Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory” energy that no one asked for. Despite the backlash, Cardi defended her song when she Cardi called in to Australia’s The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Aug. 25, “The people that the song bothers are usually conservatives or really religious people,” she explained. “But my thing is…I grew up listening to this type of music. To other people, it might be vulgar, but to me, it’s almost really normal.”
“Of course, I don’t want my child [Kulture, 2] to listen to the song,” she added. “But it’s like, it’s for adults! … It’s what people want to hear. If people didn’t want to hear it, if they were so afraid to hear it, it wouldn’t be doing so good.” She’s correct – “WAP” debuted at the No. 1 spot, and spent its first two weeks in the top position before BTS dethroned it with “Dynamite.” Still, “WAP” landed in the No. 2 spot, showing that it still is going strong.