Does anyone have a full video of Amber performing "That's Life" and receiving her Team USA jacket at the 2026 US nationals gala/"Making Team USA" event? I have searched everywhere and can't seem to find it. Any links or recordings are very much appreciated!
Misha was wearing not one but two pieces that directly related to queer history/pride. The "art is not enough" phrase on his t-shirt was used as an activist slogan during the HIV/AIDS crisis, and his shoes are from an Adidas Pride collection. For those who don't know, to put it lightly, things are not good for the LGBTQ community in Kazakhstan and Russia. There are laws against "gay propaganda" in both countries, HIV/AIDS still carries a huge stigma, and there aren't any legal protections in place for queer people or HIV+ people. From what I understand as a westerner, it likely wouldn't be safe for Misha to so much as show support for the LGBTQ community out loud, especially now that he's something of a public figure.
If it was just the shirt or just the shoes, I would believe it's a coincidence (and it still could be), but the fact that Misha, who's so intentional about everything he does, showed up to an interview wearing these pieces is super interesting to me.
Note: Mods delete if not allowed. I'm absolutely not trying to speculate about Misha's identity or that of anyone around him; I just think it's interesting and I wonder what (if anything) he was trying to say with his outfit choice for this interview. Also, happy pride everyone!
It's the offseason and I'm bored, so naturally I went through all the music used in Olympic seasons 2010 to 2026 and sorted the programs by genre, inspired by this article from 2018. Obviously, a major contributing factor in the changes here is the legalization of music with lyrics in singles skating in 2014. But my theory is that it also reflects changing attitudes towards modern music as younger millennial and gen z skaters started dominating podiums, as well as music licensing availability and a desire among some skaters to make figure skating more popular and relevant in the general population. Classical music will always have a chokehold on figure skating (which is not a criticism – I like a good warhorse as much as the next person) due to most pieces being in the public domain and thus being available for free or cheap. Blues, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and rap remain underrepresented, possibly due to biases against historically Black-dominated music genres.
This data was crudely collected by a random person with google sheets, minimal statistics background, and too much time on their hands, so some of it may be incorrect – I did not listen to every piece. If a program was a medley of several songs in different genres, it was counted as 2+ different entries. Music was sorted into broader categories as follows:
Pop/Rock - popular music from any era, usually with lyrics; dance pop, disco, indie pop, folk pop, soft rock, rock and roll, trad pop/oldies, metal, punk, electronic, country, etc. Instrumental covers of pop/rock songs were also counted.
Classical - instrumental music with classical influences; medieval, baroque, romantic, ballet, opera, waltz, tango, classical crossover, modern instrumental compositions
Soundtrack - music written explicitly for film/tv/video game scores, often but not always instrumental
Musical theatre - music written for or popularized by a work of musical theatre or a movie musical
Blues/Jazz - jazz, blues, swing, easy listening, big band, and other jazz or jazz-influenced genres with or without lyrics
Hip-hop/R&B - hip-hop, trip hop, rhythm and blues, and (in two cases) rap; almost always with lyrics
World music - music from specific countries/cultures, sometimes associated with a cultural dance or tradition; Irish stepdancing music, Bollywood, French Chanson, folk songs, national anthems, religious/Christmas music, Flamenco, Latin music, etc.
Other - there's only one program in this category, and it's Ilia Malinin's A Voice FP, which I could only classify as "spoken word" (yes, other skaters have used spoken word in their programs, but it's usually as part of a soundtrack/musical theatre program rather just than laid over unrelated instrumental music, and I could not in good conscious put that program in "classical/soundtrack"). I also briefly considered putting Tomas's Minions in this category under "children's" simply because putting Minions and Schindler's List in the same category felt wrong, but I ultimately decided it belonged in soundtrack and pop.
Some other I could look into, if people are interested (might do it anyway because i'm a nerd like that):
- Same concept with pairs and dance (excluding themed RDs, obviously)
- Does this data change if you only look at big feds vs small feds? (my hunch is that skaters from big feds are more likely to use modern/popular music due to having more resources in terms of music licensing)
- Some studies have suggested that, especially in Olympic seasons, skaters in contention for a medal are more likely to play it safe, so to speak, by choosing to skate to classical music that they know will play well with judges. Does this hold up in 2026?
- Is there actually an epidemic of Sadboi/Sadgirl music in pairs skating compared to other disciplines? (answer: yes)
- Open to other suggestions!
I'm a big fan of theirs and I think this is a good program choice for them. Might be too similar to the free dances they've done in the past few seasons, though, so I'd like to see them branch out in the future.
Kinda funny that the first two ice dance program announcements are both classic warhorses...I am once again asking ice dancers to Find New Music.
Thoughts?
EDIT: title was supposed to say 2026/27. Typo.
