NY mayor De Blasio sings praises of LA for Jimmy Kimmel in Stanley Cup bet

New York City’s mayor is a pretty good sport.

On Monday night, Bill de Blasio appeared via satellite from New York on Jimmy Kimmel Live, to make good on his Stanley Cup bet with Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti. The wager stipulated that if the New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, de Blasio would appear on the talk show and perform a rendition of Randy Newman’s I Love LA.

And lo, decked out in an “I Heart LA” T-shirt and backed by a chorus of children from the 52nd Street Project, de Blasio did just that.

Overall, the mayor’s voice was a little flat, but what he lacked in vocal prowess he made up for with some mild choreography and a surprising decision to pronounce “valley” with the local inflection.

De Blasio also made sure to omit the song’s opening line: “Hate New York City, it’s cold and it’s damp.”

“This is a hostage situation,” the mayor said after Garcetti appeared in Kimmel’s studio to savour the victory and collect on his bet. Had his team lost, he would have had to sing a tune made famous by Frank Sinatra: Kander and Ebb's New York, New York.

Garcetti clearly still had some energy left after a Kings rally earlier in the day, at which he dropped an F-bomb while addressing the crowd.

“This is a big fucking day! Way to go guys!” he declared, before brandishing what appeared to be an aluminum bottle of beer over his head.

De Blasio, unfortunately, did not manage to look nearly as cool when the two mayors encountered each other via satellite.

“Mayor de Blasio, you look like a counselor at the worst camp ever,” Kimmel joked.

The real winners in the wager were Kimmel’s studio audience, who received New York’s classic Gray’s Papaya hot dogs courtesy of the mayor.

Garcetti, however, passed: “I’m gonna stick with Pink’s,” he said. “They kinda make a Gray’s Papaya dog taste like a pile of steaming New York garbage.”

“This ain’t over!” De Blasio declared.