Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined Cardi B backstage during a recent tour stop to ask the Bronx-born rapper to help judge the city’s 2-K jingle competition.
Photo by NYCMayor/X
New York City’s push to launch free child care for two-year-olds is getting a celebrity boost from Cardi B — and a very 2026 caveat from City Hall.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Bronx-born rapper announced on Friday that applications for the city’s new 2-K program will open June 2 and run through June 26. But before that happens, the administration wants New Yorkers to help get the word out with an official jingle.
The city’s new contest invites residents to submit original 15- or 30-second songs encouraging families to apply for 2-K. The winning entry will become the program’s official theme and air on the radio.
Then comes the fine print: no AI.
According to the contest rules, all music and lyrics must be original and cannot include copyrighted, trademarked, or AI-generated material. amNewYork is awaiting a response to an inquiry about City Hall’s plans to filter out rule breakers.
Entrants must be at least 18 years old and live in NYC. Every jingle must include the 2-K registration website (myschools.nyc) and be family-friendly. Bilingual entries — especially in Spanish — are also being encouraged.
Judging will happen in three stages. First, the mayor’s office staff will screen entries for rule compliance. Then Cardi B, along with what the city describes as “a panel of special guest judges, including some familiar voices from top hits on the radio,” will select five finalists before New Yorkers vote for the winner.
The rules say a winner will be selected by May 18, and the potential winner will be contacted on or about June 1.
There’s no cash prize attached, just clout. Under the terms of the contest, contestants would still own their work, but by entering, they grant the city permanent rights to use, edit, and distribute their jingle in any medium, whether or not it wins. Entrants also agree that the city can use their name, likeness, and image in connection with the contest and related promotion.
‘I can get ’em both. I don’t wanna choose’
The contest itself is part of a broader promotional effort around 2-K, which the administration has framed as a step toward universal, free child care for two-year-olds. Families will be able to apply for seats in school districts 6, 10, 18, 23, and 27, with offers expected in August, but Staten Island is not included.
The program is set to launch this fall with 2,000 free seats and expand to universal access within four years. Officials say it will be open to families regardless of ZIP code, income, or immigration status, though the initial rollout is limited to five districts.
Mamdani previously defended Staten Island’s exclusion, saying the city targeted districts with both high need and the capacity to scale quickly. City officials said the program is expected to expand to 12,000 seats next year, with universal access by the end of Mamdani’s first term.
“As Cardi B says: ‘I can get ’em both. I don’t wanna choose.’ With universal child care, New Yorkers won’t have to,” Mayor Mamdani said in a statement. “For too long, families have been forced to choose between affordable care and staying in the city they love. Now, they can have both—free care in the greatest city in the world.”
In Friday’s video announcement, Cardi B called child care essential for women and families trying to move forward.
“Child care is very important. Sometimes us women can’t really go forward because we don’t have nobody to help us take care of our kids,” The Grammy-winning rapper said.
Submissions for the jingle contest are now open and due by April 17. So, if New Yorkers want to help soundtrack the city’s latest child care push, they can. They just have to write the song themselves.
