Take a guess as to what this post is about. That’s right, crop rotation in the 14th century.
It is a big Thank You to @JACOBLADD87 who took the time to search and gather together a YouTube Playlist of all the 2018 World Cup songs he could find. As well as @sirsidneyp with their YT Playlist in which the found all the associated adverts as well as some tunes for the World Cup. I’ll be going through these lists and selecting for you which I think are worth a few minutes of your time to watch.
– Just as it was four years ago with the sight of Pitbull in capri pants, we’ll get a random un-associated with football entertainment in the form of Will Smith performing the official song which again, the tune has nothing to do with football.
– There’s also a track from Jason Derulo as presented by the official fizzy drink sponsor which is half decent. Additionally you have a version of that along with Colombian singer Maluma which again is worth a glance.
– What I do recommend though is this from singer/actress/designer (the triple threat!) Natalia Oreiro who has this multi-language song in Spanish, Russian and English.
Next we have three songs from three official broadcasters.That’s right even the TV channels have their own tunes now. But again worth a listen.
– Shilling for Telemundo is J. Balvin & Michael Brun with Positivo – And for BeINSports we have RedOne featuring Adelina & Now United with One World.
– But the outstanding effort from these comes from Carlos Jean featuring Teyou with Dancing Together (Bailamos Juntos), an English-language song that samples Russian instruments as well as multi-use of other languages in the lyrics. This was done for Spain’s Mediaset:
To the songs for the teams now. Most of the countries have a tune for their side, some (like England) have too many. There are loads of local pop acts that are jumping on the bandwagon of releasing a song around this time and hoping to get the attention by featuring somebody in the video kicking a football. Usually none of these tunes have anything to do with the World Cup, they are just a cash-in. Like the above clips I’ve gone through the playlists and selected those musical artists who do care about the football.EDIT: This has turned into a long list, use Ctrl-S to search for the tune for your particular country.
Starting this round-up though with the hosts:
RUSSIA
Those Russian grannies are back ! Remember them from Eurovision whenever it was. This is a simple tune which also could have been used on the song contest.
MOROCCO
This is by *takes deep breath* Biwai, Riffi, Ismo, Yonii, Mr. Crazy & DJ Nassi.
On the video description it says: “This song is composed by famous artists from different countries with a Moroccan background. With this song we support the Moroccan soccer team during the upcoming Worldcup in Russia 2018.”
and…
Egypt/Saudi Arabia/Morocco
I’m not just gathering them to be lazy. This one from Waleed Samy and Ali Ben Salem is about the Arabian teams at the World Cup. The video very helpfully has English subtitles so that’s how I know.
POLAND
So… how about some rapping in Polish with an opera singer in the middle, where usually you find the rapper. This is a decent effort from MC Sobieski ft Dziemian:
Also this from InoRos – Dawaj Polsk, and this from Depth – We Are With You (don’t mention Coldplay !)
NIGERIA
From the video description: “Naira first emerged on the U.K. scene with “Marry Juana” in 2014, a lilting summertime bop using clever wordplay to extoll the virtues of weed. Since then, he’s put out a steady stream of tunes straddling both London and Lagos. His latest single, the delightfully joyous “Issa Goal,” has spawned thousands of videos of fans doing the shaku shaku. The track features guest verses from Nigerian stars Kesh and Olamide, and is something of an official-unofficial anthem for Nigeria’s soccer team as it prepares to compete in this summer’s World Cup. Its video, debuting today on The FADER, is a beautiful, green-and-white celebration in the metropolis of Lagos.”
UPDATE: As well as having the best kit at this World Cup and already having a decent song above – Nigeria are just knocking out of the park with another very good WC tune. This is from Nigerian artist Moonlight with Eagle’s Wings:
(Thanks to the always outstanding 45Football for the tipoff)
SWITZERLAND
Philipp has been in touch with the website to tell us about this song in which he was involved in making. It is a Swiss German language tune which pokes fun at Putin. It is less about the football and more about politics though.
ICELAND
We have not one but two tunes from Magni feat. Radspitz – Áfram Ísland (Go Iceland) and Við erum Tólfan (We are Tólfan – We are 12). I prefer the latter because they include the Icelandic “HUH !”
GERMANY
Benjamin Scholz with a very, very familiar (Billy Joel) tune with some new (German) lyrics:
And also this one from Tobi Vorwerk – Ein fünfter Stern (A fifth star)
PANAMA
Via Billboard.com: Panamanian artists score a team goal with euphoric “Sube La Marea” for Copa Airlines, celebrating the national team’s first trip to World Cup.
Rubén Blades, Erika Ender, Kafu Banton, Omar Alfanno, Nando Boom and other Panamanian artists have scored a team goal with a new song celebrating Panama’s first-ever participation in a World Cup.
The track was recorded for Copa Airlines as a send-off for the national team, known as la marea roja (the red tide). But branding aside, “Sube La Marea” (“The Tide Rises”) sounds the way a good fútbol song should: a stands-jumping joyous jam, rather than an over-strategized advertising jingle.
SWEDEN
As far as I can tell they originally did this tune for Euro 2016 and have recycled it for this World Cup.
Swedish lyrics which I can’t obviously understand but it is a funny video:
Additionally there is this from Vi Sjunger – De Vet Du (there’s a weird sketch first and then the song starts at 2 mins in) – and this one: JLC – Hela Vägen Hem
MEXICO
Luis Ángel Jaramillo is the voice behind that kid from the movie Coco and he is banging out a tune for the Mexican national team – Vamos al Mundial:
CROATIA
*deep voice* This is for the… *deeper voice* Croatia national team. Rapping in Croatian too:
IRAN
Salar Aghili – Eleven Stars: “Salar Aghili singing in the name of Eleven Stars, in support of the Iranian national team in the 2018 World Cup”
SENEGAL
They’ve only gone and managed to get the legendary Youssou N’Dour to contribute to this song:
URUGUAY
Half decent this one. The Quartet of Nos with Gaucho Power:
SERBIA
Brought to you by a Serbian beer company, a short but very stirring anthem of a song:
COSTA RICA
The only thing I know about this one is the artist and the title: Percance – Matagigantes.
SOUTH KOREA
It looks like this is via a South Korean music publishing company. We Are The Ones (We Reds):
ENGLAND
I’ve already mentioned about there being too many England songs… it’s something in our DNA, every time a major tournament comes around (if we qualify) every pub singer and his dog take to the microphone in an attempt to belt one out. Sometimes I do wish that there was an officially sanctioned tune but the English F.A’s selection of an act has been as bad as the Eurovision entries for a number of years now. I don’t know if we’ll ever hit the heights again. This goes for the music as well as the team.
In anyways, this is something to insert here to represent the entry for England and I’m going against the rules now. With all the videos featured here the criteria was that all the songs were released in the last few months. This one for England was actually first released in 2010 (with all profits going to the Princes Trust). Commentators United were exactly that – it featured a number of well known English football commentators:
And thanks to a Twitter account set up to promote it I found out that they were back.
Same commentary audio but new vocals:
“Brand new production, teenage voices to reflect success of U17 & U20s last year, mixed voices to reflect the game is evolving, and the male voice choir to reflect tradition.”
SPAIN
Saving the best until last.
The age of the singing footballer has gone, I’d given up hope of seeing any of these modern day over paid preening prima donnas going into the studio and rocking up to the mic. But then…
Sergio Ramos, everyone’s favourite footballer right now, did exactly that:
Yeah there are other 2018 WC songs for Spain, but do you really need them ? (Also are you also secretly wishing that Spain are winners of their group and Egypt are runners up in theirs ?)
Wrapping this up now. As you might have noticed there are a few countries not represented above. If you do see or hear of any songs/videos leave a comment below: