City of Color

City of Color (called City of Colour in the British English version of ) is a song performed by the Squid Sisters.

Description
City of Color is a peppy pop song. During Splatfests, the Squid Sisters performed this song on top of two trucks in Inkopolis Plaza. Using either the Callie or Marie amiibo also allows the player to watch the Squid Sisters perform the song as if they were in a Splatfest. It can also be heard in Squid Beatz after hearing it during a Splatfest and it is included in Splatune and Splatoon Live in Makuhari. In, it can be played in the jukebox if the player has downloaded the.

Lyrics
The booklet included with Splatune gives the official lyrics for City of Color. The lyrics are nonsensical; the Japanese hiragana simply gives the pronunciation.

Meeting the New Squidbeak Splatoon
A version of City of Color plays in when Agent 3 meets the New Squidbeak Splatoon for the first time upon reaching Alterna in Return of the Mammalians. It is heard again when Agent 3 first returns to Alterna after defeating Mr. Grizz. This version of the song is instrumental, with the melody of the original song's vocals played by synthesizers. The song is also slower-paced, with longer pauses between each phrase of the main melody.

City of Color (2023)
In Splatoon 3, a new cover of City of Color is performed by the Squid Sisters in Inkopolis Plaza during the first half of Splatfests. The arrangement is faithful to the original, the main difference being new instrumentation, mixing and re-recorded vocals. Some parts of the B section are reharmonized slightly and feature vocal ad-libs by Marie, and overall the track has a heavier electronic feel which is reinforced by the punchy synth drums and side-chained bass. The remaster was handled by Yumi Takahashi, the sound team member also responsible for Tomorrow's Nostalgia Today and Liquid Sunshine and represented in-universe by the producer You★Me.

Inkopolis News (Splatfest)
This is simply the instrumental version of City of Color without the Squid Sisters singing, which also includes the Inkopolis News saying heard in the original Inkopolis News song. It was played immediately after the player has pressed and  on the start screen during a Splatfest and played during Inkopolis News, replacing the regular Inkopolis News song. After the news segment ended, the vocals were added, transitioning it to the regular version.

Splatfest theme announcement jingle
This is a very shortened version of the song's intro with a lower pitch. It was played during Inkopolis News when the Splatfest theme was announced.

Splatfest final result jingle
Like the announcement jingle, this is a very shortened version of the intro, but with a more twinkly sound. This was played during Inkopolis News once the winner of the Splatfest was announced.

City of Color (Live)
During live Squid Sisters concerts, an extended version of City of Color is used. Although each performance is different due to the live bands, they retain the same strong structure. There is a new guitar solo not found in the original, along with a slightly altered instrumental after the solo. Then it has a new outro, featuring another guitar solo before the song ends. Two recordings of this version from Shiokalive 2016 and Shiokalive at Chokaigi 2016 (labelled as 1st and 2nd live versions respectively) can be found in Splatoon Live in Makuhari, and one from Shiokalive at Cho Party 2016 can be found in Octotune.

City of Color (Shy-Ho-Shy Demo)
An early version of City of Color is included in Splatoon Live in Makuhari, featuring a much simpler instrumental than the final product and different vocals. Shy-Ho-Shy, the Squid Sisters' producer, was first mentioned in the booklet for Splatune as the committee member that originally discovered the Squid Sisters' talent. The vocals heard in the song are not from the Squid Sisters, but rather Shy-Ho-Shy herself. The demo was produced as a reference for the Squid Sisters during the making of the song and might have been recorded while she was practicing it.

Maritime Memory
The majority of Maritime Memory is a slower hip-hop cover of City of Color with altered lyrics and a new instrumental.

Octo Eight-Step
Octo Eight-Step by Turquoise October samples Callie's vocals from City of Color and reverses them.

Spicy Calamari Inkantation
The melody of City of Color chorus can be heard after the end of the chorus of Spicy Calamari Inkantation during the small instrumental break. After the instrumental break, there are a few vocals before another short instrumental break that is also derived from City of Color.

Music video
The music video for City of Color first debuted during the Splatoon Direct on 2015-05-07. The song was played fully in the Japanese version, which has since been set to private, but also had narration played over it. In the Western versions of the Direct, the video was partially shown. A slightly different version of this music video was used for the JOYSOUND karaoke service in Japan when City of Color was added onto it on 2016-01-30.

The video starts at approximately 21:22. https://youtu.be/kQsZPYB0vMw?t=1282

The music video for City of Color (2023) was released on 2023-03-23, days before the start of the Nessie vs. Aliens vs. Bigfoot Splatfest, alongside Tomorrow's Nostalgia Today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvwnmjrqWA8

Quotes
"In addition, this #Splatfest tune has been remixed as City of Color (2023), & the Squid Sisters will also be performing it in Inkopolis during Splatfests!"

- @SplatoonNA on Twitter

"After seven years, the Squid Sisters' Splatfest anthem gets a fresh coat of ink, returning to #Splatoon3 as ' City of Color (2023) ' . For those celebrating the Splatfest from Inkopolis, be sure to check out this performance!"

- @NintendoEurope on Twitter

Trivia

 * Because of the end of Splatfests in Splatoon, it became impossible to listen to City of Color in Squid Beatz if the player had not participated in any Splatfests. Although one can still listen to the song through the amiibo performances, this still does not unlock it in Squid Beatz.
 * In-universe, City of Color is the Squid Sisters' debut single.
 * In the 3.0.0 update for Splatoon 3, the Squid Sisters' dance animations for City of Color (2023) were datamined, but the actual audio file for the song was not in the game's files until later.

Etymology
City of Color is named after the appearance that Inkopolis Plaza takes during Splatfests, with it being lit up by neon signs, bright lights, and fireworks.

Names in other languages
City of ColorCity of Color (2023)
 * Meeting the New Squidbeak Splatoon