NEW YORK (AP) — In need of a global superstar for a sports anthem? Colombian singer J Balvin is the right man for the job.
“Our biggest moments in history, of happiness, surround sports," he says of Colombia. “Of course music, but sport has this power (to) unite a whole country and vibe in a really positive way. So that’s part of my DNA.”
Balvin is one-fourth of Coca-Cola’s official anthem for the FIFA World Cup 2026, a reimagination of Van Halen’s “Jump” that also features drummer Travis Barker, pop/R&B singer Amber Mark and guitarist Steve Vai.
Last year, Joshua Burke, head of global music and culture marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, approached Balvin with the idea. The singer initially felt trepidation.
“I'm really precautious when it comes to songs like this one,” Balvin said. “It's like touching the Mona Lisa.”
“I have so much respect for anthems like that,” he said. So, he had to take “a totally different approach” to make it work; he wanted to avoid straightforward comparisons to the original recording.
“It was like a puzzle,” he says.
Mark's rich, crystalline voice is the first heard on the track; she sings the song's original English lyrics. Vai transforms its iconic guitar; Barker amplifies its percussion.
The greatest difference is found in Balvin's contributions. He wrote a new verse — in Spanish — atop production courtesy his collaborator L.E.X.V.Z, a sound he describes as “Brazilian funk with hard strings, kind of like hip-hop.”
“'Jump' is not a fútbol song,” he said of the original, using the Spanish word for soccer. “So that’s why I had to put the Latin love and passion for fútbol (in the lyrics)."
“El fútbol es nuestro idioma / Aquí todos somos mi gente,” he raps. In English: “Football is our language / Here, we’re all my people.”
“Fútbol is about bringing everyone together,” he says. It's a particularly resonant message as sports fans and organizers alike are considering the ways in which President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown may impact the tournament.
“I wish this administration open their mind and see, like, this is a world event. This is for all of us,” he said. “Let the people really have fun and enjoy and show that the United States can definitely pull off a World Cup.”
The new “Jump,” out Friday, was released through Coca-Cola's newly minted in-house label Real Thing Records, in partnership with Capitol Records. The “Jump” video, art directed and designed by McFlyy, is illustrated in the style of anime — amplifying its aim to reflect global cultural interest.
Coca-Cola has been an official sponsor for the FIFA World Cup since 1978 and has produced a number of its own anthems for the event, including Jason Derulo’s “Colors” in 2018 and a reimagining of Queen’s “A Kind of Magic” in 2022 featuring Mexican singer Danna Paola, Egyptian rapper Felukah and Saudi Arabian singer TamTam.
“Reimagining a song as iconic as Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ came with a real sense of responsibility,” Burke wrote to The Associated Press in an exclusive statement. “All four artists leaned into the process as if this was their own single. Our goal was to create an anthem that celebrates the full spectrum of emotions of the tournament and feels just as powerful in a stadium as it does blasting from a car with your friends. We were able to do exactly that.”
As for Balvin? He hopes that people respond to the energy of the song, and truly view it as “a fútbol song, you know? And that people vibe with it.”
And that is fútbol — not soccer. Don't get it twisted.
“I don't even know what soccer is,” he joked. “It's always been fútbol.”
FILE - J Balvin arrives at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
A man accused of killing three women in Utah in order to steal their cars and credit cards was already known to police in Iowa: He had been arrested in that state on suspicion of breaking into a cabin some two months prior, court documents show.
Officials released Ivan Miller, 22, without bail back in January on the charges in Iowa, and he vowed to appear for the next court appearance.
But Miller missed the arraignment Friday because he was in jail in southern Colorado after authorities tracked him there in one of the stolen vehicles.
Miller is being represented in Colorado by the state public defender’s office. Justin Bogan, who heads the office in the judicial district that covers Pagosa Springs, declined to comment Thursday.
Meanwhile, out in southern Utah’s starkly beautiful desert country, friends and relatives of the women killed struggled to comprehend what authorities called a crime of “convenience.”
Miller had stolen their cars and credit cards because he needed to get back to Iowa, he told investigators in interviews outlined in court documents.
The husbands of two victims found their wives dead near a trailhead after they didn’t return from a desert hike. The body of the third victim — a church-going woman who loved yardwork and kept a tidy yard — was found near her home.
There was no sign that Miller had any connection to the three, said Lt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Department of Public Safety.
Miller had been on the move often in recent days if not months. A few days before the killings, Miller hit an elk in the town of Loa.
He sold his pickup truck to the tow company, leaving him without a vehicle. After staying in hotels for a few days, Miller slept in the shed of resident Margaret Oldroyd, 86, in Lyman, Utah, just up the road from Torrey, outside Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah, he allegedly told investigators.
Oldroyd’s Buick was found Wednesday at a trailhead about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from her house in the rural area of farms and ranches. There, authorities said Miller told them he saw two women get out of a Subaru and killed them before taking their car.
Linda Dewey, 65, and her niece Natalie Graves, 34, were killed and found in a dry creek bed near the trail mostly used by locals. Their husbands called 911 and waved down a ranger.
“Our family is dealing with the shock of the devastating loss of two members of our family who were bonding over the beauty of a hike in one of their favorite places on earth -- cherished by them and the community, considered to be a safe sanctuary,” the family of Dewey and Graves said in a statement. “They were murdered. We cannot comprehend why this happened.”
The family described Dewey as a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter and sister who had many extended family members and friends all over the world.
“She was loved deeply and loved her family deeply. She was the heart of our family,” their statement said.
The family described Graves, a wife, daughter and sister, as “joy, sunshine and beauty embodied.”
Police linked the Buick to its owner, Oldroyd, whose body they found in a cellar under the shed on her property.
Next-door neighbor Randy Jones said he was shocked by the death of “the sweetest woman you'd ever meet." She kept her flowers and lawn watered and neatly manicured, he said.
Oldroyd used to work at a local grocery store stocking shelves, Jones said. And when Jones helped rid her yard of skunks, she would bring him a cake as a thank you.
“Out here in rural counties, we all take care of each other,” Jones said.
Jones said Oldroyd didn't leave home much in recent years except to attend religious services and get groceries. Now and then, she would visit him and his horses.
Miller stole Oldroyd's car after shooting her from behind while she was watching TV, Wayne County prosecutors allege.
After finding the bodies, police searched the greater Four Corners region for Miller.
He drove through northern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico before they caught up with him in Pagosa Springs, a Colorado tourist town known for hot spring resorts lining the San Juan River.
Miller told investigators he killed the two women after realizing he didn't like the Buick and took bank cards because he needed money to get back to Iowa, according to court documents.
Miller appeared briefly in court in Colorado for the first time Friday but didn’t speak expect to say and spell his name. His lawyer, public defender Scott Van Zandt, said he would fight his client being sent to Utah, where he could face the death penalty.
Wayne County, Utah, Attorney Michael Winn declined to comment on Miller’s plan to fight extradition.
Van Zandt said Miller did not want to talk to law enforcement or the media.
Miller had an arraignment scheduled Friday in Iowa on charges including felony second-degree burglary and misdemeanor theft, marijuana possession and gun possession. Court documents in that case say Miller also faced a related case charging him with illegally hunting on a game refuge, but that case was not found in a statewide search of Iowa online court records. According to a court order dated Jan. 13, he was released without bail on a promise to appear on the charges.
Miller had been arrested after rangers at a southern Iowa state park entered a cabin on Dec. 31 to get it ready for a reservation later that day.
They found the front door unlocked, food on the counter, a pan with bacon grease in it on the stove, a container with several marijuana joints, and loaded guns including a bolt-action rifle with a bayonet and an AR-10 with a scope and bipod, according to the arrest affidavit.
The person staying there had also brought in a television, Xbox game console and Starlink internet device, suggesting “intent to stay for a long period of time” at Lake Wapello State Park, according to the affidavit by the two park rangers.
The affidavit states that Miller showed up while the rangers were there, knocked softly and soon admitted to breaking into the cabin three days earlier seeking a warm place to stay.
The county attorney’s office prosecuting Miller on his Iowa charges declined Friday to answer any questions on the case, including whether Iowa prosecutors would allow Utah officials to first pursue the more serious charges against Miller. The Associated Press left a voicemail Friday for his public defender in the Iowa case.
This story has been corrected to show that Miller was due in an Iowa court Friday on burglary, theft and other counts and that court documents show he faced a related case accusing him of illegally hunting on game refuge.
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Slevin reported from Denver, Beck from Omaha, Nebraska, and Gruver from Fort Collins, Colorado. Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
A woman hangs a pink ribbon on a pole Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Lyman, Utah, in honor of a woman that was killed a day earlier. (AP Photo/George Frey)
Police and investigators conduct an investigation at Cocks Comb trailhead where two woman were killed Wednesday, on Thursday, March 5, 2026, outside Teasdale, Utah. (AP Photo/George Frey)
Authorities conduct an investigation Thursday, March 5, 2026, into the deaths of two women a day earlier on a trail just west of Capitol Reef National Park near Teasdale, Utah. (AP Photo/George Frey)
A pink ribbon hangs on a tree outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Lyman, Utah, in honor of a woman that was killed a day earlier. (AP Photo/George Frey)
Police and investigators conduct an investigation at Cocks Comb trailhead where two woman were killed Wednesday, on Thursday, March 5, 2026, outside Teasdale, Utah. (AP Photo/George Frey)
A pink ribbons hangs on a pole Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Lyman, Utah, in front of the house of a woman that was killed a day earlier. (AP Photo/George Frey)
