Julieta Venegas Is Facing So Much Backlash Over Her World Cup Song That YouTube Disabled the Comments

By Julio Enriquez from Denver,CO, USA - Julieta Venegas 

Julieta Venegas has spent over two decades building one of the most respected catalogs in Latin music, with songs like “Limón y Sal,” “Me Voy” and “Eres Para Mí” cementing her place as one of the most emotionally honest and musically distinctive voices her generation has produced. Her decision to record “La Niña Futbolista” as part of the cultural programming surrounding the 2026 World Cup seemed like a natural extension of an artist who has never shied away from work with meaning behind it. What she could not have anticipated was the scale of the reaction that followed, a wave of criticism sharp enough that the official YouTube video had its comments section disabled entirely, turning a song about girls playing soccer into one of the most debated cultural moments of the tournament’s buildup.

The song itself is a reimagining of a track originally popularized in the late 1990s by the Mexican group Patita de Perro, following a young girl who loves the game but faces constant pushback from people who believe it is not a space for her. Venegas recorded a new version alongside a chorus of women, backed by Mexico’s Secretariat of Culture and introduced during a federal government press conference.

Why the Song Became a Target

The criticism came from multiple directions and for multiple reasons, which is part of what made the backlash so difficult to contain. A substantial portion of critics focused on the song’s musical style, arguing that it lacked the energy and festivity that World Cup anthems are traditionally expected to deliver. Listeners accustomed to the propulsive, crowd-ready quality of major sporting event songs found “La Niña Futbolista” too understated for the occasion, and said so loudly across social media platforms.

A separate wave of criticism targeted the context in which the song was presented. Because the project was backed by Mexico’s Secretariat of Culture and introduced during a federal government press conference, a significant number of users interpreted the release as politically motivated rather than culturally driven, which colored how they received the song’s message before they had fully heard it.

Others took issue with the song’s thematic focus, describing its emphasis on gender barriers in sports as too narrow or too ideologically loaded for what they expected from a World Cup release. On the other side of that argument, supporters defended the song precisely because of that focus, pointing out that the obstacles it describes are real and that visibility for girls in sports remains a legitimate conversation worth having on a global platform.

What Venegas Actually Said About It

Venegas has not responded directly to the criticism, but she explained her motivation for participating in the project before the controversy reached its peak. She said she wanted to inspire girls and women not to let themselves be stopped by the barriers or prejudices that other people place in their path, and that she made the song with genuine affection and a hope that it would encourage people to play and have fun. That framing positions her involvement as personal and straightforward rather than political, though the context of the song’s release made it difficult for that message to land cleanly once the debate had already taken shape.

A Legacy That Deserves More Respect Than This Moment Is Getting

It is worth pausing on who Julieta Venegas is before allowing this controversy to define how her participation in the project is remembered. She is the artist who gave Latin music “Limón y Sal,” “Me Voy” and “Eres Para Mí,” songs that have outlasted trends and continued to resonate with audiences across generations. Her career represents a body of work built on emotional honesty, musical craft and a consistent willingness to do things on her own terms regardless of commercial pressure.

A divisive World Cup song does not erase any of that. Artists who take on projects with political or social dimensions will always attract criticism from audiences who wanted something different, and the intensity of the reaction to “La Niña Futbolista” says as much about the polarized environment surrounding the 2026 tournament as it does about the song itself. Venegas made it with care and a clear intention, and whatever the internet decided about the result, her catalog remains exactly what it has always been.

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