All eyes have been on Toronto amid the buzz of Drake’s triple album release, boosting the city’s “soft power,” as one expert explains.
Soft power pertains to a city or country’s influence through culture, according to TMU professor of hospitality and tourism Wayne Smith.
“It 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,” Smith said in an interview with CTV News Toronto.
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.
The homegrown rapper has fully built Toronto into his own personal brand, Destination Toronto President Andrew Weir noted, which has propped up the city’s “awareness and cultural relevance in a very significant way.”
“Pop culture helps shape the way we see places, from iconic movie scenes to song lyrics to events that capture global attention,” Weir said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.
Numerous Toronto landmarks were also featured in the livestream, including City Hall, the University of Toronto Scarborough campus and Yorkville restaurant Sotto Sotto.
It represented Toronto in a positive light, Smith argued.
“He’s connecting it to his roots,” Smith said. “That’s a really good way of building that kind of connection to place and space. The cultural aspect of it, there’s a real reason why Hollywood, Bollywood, K-drama, K-music is such a powerful thing. It shows a powerful leverage.”
Toronto’s cultural currency will continue to strengthen when the World Cup starts, as Smith likened the tournament to compounding interest for the city.
“This is where we hopefully will build upon it and build a tourism industry of people wanting to come see this (city), come see here,” Smith said.
“It 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.”
