{"id":673111,"date":"2026-05-16T09:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T09:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/673111\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T09:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T09:02:15","slug":"torontos-soft-power-is-on-the-rise-following-drakes-iceman-release-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/673111\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto&#8217;s soft power is on the rise following Drake&#8217;s ICEMAN release. Here&#8217;s why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Drake fans have not one, but three new albums to celebrate, with the rapper launching the projects with a spectacle at the CN tower and fireworks. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">All eyes have been on Toronto amid the buzz of Drake\u2019s triple album release, boosting the city\u2019s \u201csoft power,\u201d as one expert explains. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Soft power pertains to a city or country\u2019s influence through culture, according to TMU professor of hospitality and tourism Wayne Smith. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a way of spreading culture around the world and getting people to understand that this is a place you want to go and visit and live and be part of,\u201d Smith said in an interview with CTV News Toronto. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Drake shoved Toronto in the limelight on Thursday night with fans from around the world tuning into his livestream, watching the city serve as a backdrop to his latest tracks, including a light show that looked like the CN Tower had frozen over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The homegrown rapper has fully built Toronto into his own personal brand, Destination Toronto President Andrew Weir noted, which has propped up the city\u2019s \u201cawareness and cultural relevance in a very significant way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cPop culture helps shape the way we see places, from iconic movie scenes to song lyrics to events that capture global attention,\u201d Weir said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/local\/toronto\/2026\/05\/15\/drake-takes-over-toronto-city-hall-to-debut-new-album-these-are-all-the-other-places-in-the-city-featured-in-his-new-music-videos\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/local\/toronto\/2026\/05\/15\/drake-takes-over-toronto-city-hall-to-debut-new-album-these-are-all-the-other-places-in-the-city-featured-in-his-new-music-videos\/\">Numerous Toronto landmarks<\/a> were also featured in the livestream, including City Hall, the University of Toronto Scarborough campus and Yorkville restaurant Sotto Sotto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It represented Toronto in a positive light, Smith argued. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s connecting it to his roots,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThat\u2019s a really good way of building that kind of connection to place and space. The cultural aspect of it, there\u2019s a real reason why Hollywood, Bollywood, K-drama, K-music is such a powerful thing. It shows a powerful leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Toronto\u2019s cultural currency will continue to strengthen when the World Cup starts, as Smith likened the tournament to compounding interest for the city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThis is where we hopefully will build upon it and build a tourism industry of people wanting to come see this (city), come see here,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt not only just drives tourism, it actually drives business development because businesses (will) want to move here, spurs jobs, all these things. The more livable your city is the more livable it appears to others.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drake fans have not one, but three new albums to celebrate, with the rapper launching the projects with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[712,49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-673111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}