Did Pitbull Really Say Davenport, Illinois? Kind of.
If you look up cities and towns named Davenport, there are only 9 states with that town or city name. States with a town or city named Davenport include California, Florida, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington, and Iowa. Davenport, Iowa is the largest city that holds the name in the U.S.
When Pitbull performed Saturday night on the Grandstand Stage at the Mississippi Valley Fair, a lot of people thought they heard him call it Davenport, Illinois. I am here to set the record straight. He kind of did.
Before we get to what you came here for let me say that Pitbull performing Saturday at the 2021 Mississippi Valley Fair was INSANE! That was by far the largest crowd for a Grandstand act at any Mississippi Vally Fair. I'm just assuming because personally, I've never seen any crowd bigger than that at MVF.
He performed every single hit and there was no slow moment of that show. Pitbull performed for 1 hour and 15 minutes on the nose (Yes, I'm that guy who looked at his watch when he took the stage and when it ended). Plus, I was on stage before him so I LITERALLY watched him go up and start at 8 p.m. on the nose and finish right at 9:15 p.m. But all 1 hour and 15 minutes of his performance was nothing short of excellent. The lights, the smoke, the crowd, the music, all of it was just pure awesomeness.
But because we are all human, we all make mistakes. A lot of people are saying that Pitbull was calling Davenport, Iowa, Davenport, Illinois. Did he actually do that? Luckily for you, I was sober and at the entire show so let me explain.
Pitbull Definitely Said "Iowa"
At the start of his performance, Pitbull definitely shouted out Davenport, Mississippi Valley Fair, and Iowa. He said Iowa quite a few times at the start of his show, I promise you that. But as he was shouting out everyone, he said,
"And I'm sure some of you came over from Illinois..."
People came from all over to see Mr. Worldwide, Mr. 305, Pitbull himself perform at the Mississippi Valley Fair. When I say this has to be the largest Grandstand crowd, I'm not exaggerating. Here's the selfie we took on stage.
There Was A Hard 'S' When Pitbull Said "Illinois"
If we really want to criticize Pitbull for anything, he 1,000% threw a hard 's' at the end of Illinois. That's like say adding the 's' in Des Moines. But I'm not here to turn a positive into a negative (see what I did there?). The show was awesome and that's all that matters.
Back on track here. How did he "kind of" say "Davenport, Illinois"?
Davenport, Illinois
Towards the end of the night, after performing in the heat and humidity for an hour, he may have said Davenport, Illinois. Again, he said Iowa numerous times at the start of the show. The guy knew where he was, he really was trying to be inclusive. Yes, when he was giving his "turning things from a negative to a positive" speech before performing his hit "Give Me Everything", he said,
"So everybody here tonight, representing Mississippi Valley Fair, Davenport, Illinois..."
He said it so quickly that it sounded like he was saying Davenport, Illinois.
The only video I found where it's kind of close is this one:
I'm sure there are other videos floating out there, but in all honesty, who cares?
Thank You, Mr. Worldwide
I'll leave you with this. If you are going to get hung up on this, you're missing the big picture. An international superstar came to the Quad Cities and put on one hell of a show. We can't thank Shawn Loter and the Mississippi Valley Fair, Romeo Entertainment Group, and everyone involved enough for not only bringing in Pitbull but all of the incredible acts to the 2021 Mississippi Valley Fair.