A few years ago, the International Skating Union changed its rules to allow skaters to use songs with lyrics in their routines, a decision designed to shake up traditional performances set to classical music.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before somebody performed to Lil Jon.
For Jimmy Ma, the time is now. On Thursday at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the 22-year-old skater from Queens competed in the mens' short program with a routine that included "Turn Down For What" by DJ Snake and Lil Jon. And nothing will ever be the same again.
For the record, "Turn Down For What" is indeed a song with lyrics -- exactly two lyrics, if anyone's counting: "Turn down for what?" and "Fire up that loud, another round of shots," repeated over and over again.
The commentators clearly did not know what to make of it, but the performance lit up social media.
It's the first Olympic year in which figure skaters can use music w/ lyrics in their programs. A man at the US Trials just skated to Lil Jon
— Sara Germano (@germanotes) January 5, 2018
Jimmy Ma brings it at U.S. Figure Skating Championships. pic.twitter.com/ywMuM0vM88
— Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) January 5, 2018
Section 121 is rocking out to Jimmy Ma’s music pic.twitter.com/6gyIn0u0zq
— Marni Gallagher (@crossthefingers) January 5, 2018
.@ma_jimmy brought the club to the #USChamps18 I enjoyed the heck out of that performance. pic.twitter.com/8N4WS30YtF
— Richard Nguyen (@RichardNguyenSJ) January 5, 2018
Ma knew the song was an indisputable banger -- and just the kind of jolt figure skating could use right now.
"Figure skating is an extreme sport," Ma tells USA Today. "I want the most amount of people to see that it is both an awesome art form and also an awesome sport. The whole point was to get people hyped. Get older people hyped and for younger people to think it is cool."
Alas, Ma finished the short program in 11th place. But for one night, at least, figure skating got crunk.
