By Liam Divilly
The World Cup produces some great music. From giant brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, to the tournament organisers and even the teams. Every four years, people try to take advantage of the world’s biggest sporting event and create a chart-topping hit around football.
There’s been some good and some not so good, but here are the five that we think need to slot straight into your Spotify playlist.
And sorry, there’s no place for ‘Samba E Gol’ in this list. We’re trying to be taken seriously.
#5: Shout for England – Dizzee Rascal & James Corden (OFFICIAL ENGLAND SONG 2010)
England get a lot wrong both on and off-the-field when it comes to international tournaments, but one thing they’ve got right more often than not is the music.
The first of two songs in this list from the 1966 World Cup winners was released as the official song of the team’s 2010 campaign in South Africa. It very much captures a moment in time. Dizzee was pulling rap and grime into the mainstream in the UK, and James Corden was still munching on takeaways as Smithy from Gavin & Stacey.
The song samples Tears for Fears’ song of the same name as well as ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet. Reaching number #1 in the UK charts in its first week after being released, ‘Shout’ performed significantly better than Fabio Capello’s side in South Africa, crashing out to Germany in the Round of 16.
#4: Waka Waka – Shakira (OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT SONG 2010)
Up until 2010, official tournament World Cups songs weren’t really considered a big deal, mainly because very few of them were any good. C-list artists such as Ricky Martin, Anastacia or someone no one had ever heard of from the host country were usually tasked with performing a tune that would quickly be consigned to the dustbin of both footballing and musical history.
Waka Waka changed all that. Sung by a true worldwide superstar in Shakira, the song is focuses on not just football but also the importance of an African country hosting the tournament. The video and beat were modern and mainstream, but also unique, allowing Waka Waka to be played on the airwaves not only for the summer of the tournament but also for months and years afterwards.
Reaching number 1 in an array of countries across Europe and clocking up over 2.3 billion YouTube views to date, this may only be our fourth best World Cup song, but it’s by far the most influential
#3: We Are One (Ole Ola) – Pitbull ft. Jennifer Lopez & Claudia Leitte (OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT SONG 2014)
Following on from Waka Waka was always going to be tough, and when it was announced that Pitbull was going to be handed on the baton by Shakira, few people would’ve thought this song would be as good as it is.
It’s hard to say anything other than this is just a really good song to listen to. It’s not quite got the powerful lyrics that Waka Waka had, nor will it ever feel as nostalgic as ‘Shout’, but it just sounds like a proper samba football song, which it should be, given that the 2014 competition took place in Brazil.
Claudia Leitte’s verse in Portuguese adds a bit of flair to the track and things get intense for a while when Jennifer Lopez comes in. Overall, just really enjoyable to listen to and a real ‘footballing’ single.
#2: The Lightning Seeds – Three Lions ’98 (UNOFFICIAL ENGLAND SONG 1998)
Originally released for the European Championships in England in 1996, the Lightning Seeds redid the song for the France World Cup two years later. This time though, they changed the lyrics, making the single all about England’s semi-final defeat to the Germans two years earlier.
The song became, and remains, iconic. It was sung non-stop in 2018 as England powered to the semi-finals in Russia and the lyrics are even known by countless non-football fans up and down the country. A comical video helped make it memorable and maybe explains why the FA didn’t commission the song as England’s official World Cup single. Its popularity grows so high every four years that Three Lions is the only song to have four different stints at number 1 in the UK Charts.
It also holds the record for fastest chart descent, going from top spot to 97th in the space of a week following England’s defeat to Croatia in the 2018 semi-final.
#1: Live It Up – Nicky Jam ft. Will Smith & Era Istrefi (OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT SONG 2018)
2010 had a South African feel to it, 2014 had Brazilian vibes, thank God the 2018 song didn’t attempt to be Russian. The writers must have conveniently forgot to record a verse in Russian or include any traditional Soviet instruments, and as a consequence, Live It Up was a success.
Including a Spanish verse (which was all the rage back then) helped the song appeal to a worldwide audience and even though very little of what Will Smith touches isn’t cringe-worthy these days, his two very short appearances in the song are actually quite good.
It’s feverishly fast and one of the few World Cup songs ever released that could unironically be played at 01.30am on a nightclub dancefloor. It never achieved the chart success or radio time that ‘Waka Waka’ or ‘We Are One’ did, but it comes in at the top of our list of the best ever World Cup songs.
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