Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Commercial With Lionel Messi (Watch Kids Sing Lorde’s “Royals”)

This is where I’d say “Lorde, Lorde!” if the “e” wasn’t silent. Lorde’s “Royals” has been just about everywhere lately, and now we’ve officially moved on to the Kidz Bop version. Well, not quite — kids do sing the song in this video, but it’s a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 commercial starring four-time defending FIFA Player of the Year Lionel Messi. No sign of the New Zealand teen queen, though. Here’s the plot:

A mysterious stranger arrives in a low income neighborhood and captures the imaginations of the children who live there. He is “The Developer” and the children view him with a deep suspicion.

I wanted to hate this, but both the kids and Messi are so irrepressibly charming that I couldn’t help grinning, and the kids do the song justice. It does have a certain nursery rhyme quality to it.