AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK, sports fans, you know the routine. If your team wins while you're sitting in a particular spot on the couch while wearing some old, ratty T-shirt, you know you must repeat that act throughout the playoffs, right?
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Right, indeed. And sports teams? No different. Take, for example, the Edmonton Oilers. They are fighting right now for the Stanley Cup, and a certain song has taken hold.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PINK PONY CLUB")
CHAPPELL ROAN: (Singing) God, what have you done? You're a pink pony girl.
CHANG: Oh, yeah, you know it. Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club." She gives shoutouts to places in California and Tennessee, but she says nothing about the Canadian province of Alberta or the city of Edmonton.
KELLY: And yet, Ailsa, since the playoffs, they have been grooving to it in the stadium, also the locker room.
CHANG: And it seems to have started casually enough back in March when there was a singalong for fans.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PINK PONY CLUB")
ROAN: (Singing) Pink Pony Club...
CHANG: How did it grow so much? Well, when the team has been asked directly why this song has been the song they rely on, the players, well, they refuse to answer.
KELLY: Yeah, the Edmonton Sun reports that goalie Calvin Pickard says, quote, "well, I know exactly where it started, but I don't know if I want to let that secret out. I know exactly when because I was there," he says, "but I think I'm going to keep it tight to the chest."
CHANG: Fine, we didn't want to know anyway.
KELLY: (Laughter).
CHANG: Perhaps if they do take the cup - it's a best-of-seven series - they will reveal the true power of the "Pink Pony Club." In the meantime, here's to the magic of that song.
KELLY: Yes, may it work for you, Edmonton Oilers, just like "Baby Shark" did for the Washington Nationals in 2019. You will remember.
CHANG: (Laughter) Oh, yeah.
KELLY: Eat it, the rest of you who are not Nats fans. They won the World Series clapping their fins.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PINK PONY CLUB")
ROAN: (Singing) I'm going to keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club. I'm going to keep on dancing down in West Hollywood. I'm going to keep on dancing at the Pink Pony... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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