Here we go with our ultimate list of soccer songs for the Fifa World Cup in South Africa, part 1.
I have to admit that I am most likely the one person in our team that is least interested in soccer, but well, someone had to do it.
David Campos & Martin PK – Stand As One
That’s what you call a hymn! Standing in the tradition of songs celebrating African Unity this one gives you shivers. And it’s a nice popsong at all.
DJ Sbu – Vuvuzela Bafana
Great one! Nice funky Kwaito track with a constant Vuvuzela humming in the background. Makes totally sense that DJ Sbu calls it a motivation song for ‘the boys’, the ‘Bafana’, as this is exactly what the Vuvuzelas do in South African stadiums. On a sidenote: reading the comments for the youtube video i was disturbed how strong racist attributions to certain kinds of musical forms or cultural habits can be… disgusting!
Ees – Again and again
Ees comes from Namibia, is a renowned Kwaito and HipHop musician over there. As he has German roots and is living and studying there right now, Germany’s biggest yellow press, ‘Bild’, hired him to do a videoblog during the World Cup. ‘Again and again’ also went to become the official ‘Bild’ World Cup Song. This is quite crazy, as the song is featured on Faluma’s ‘Laduma’ sampler and if you are from Germany, you will totally understand how funny it is to read ‘Bild’ and ‘Faluma’ in the same context.
Jessy Matador – Alllez Olla Olé
Well, in my opinion it was the first World Cup on African soil that caused France to send French-Ivorian artist Jessy Matador to the Eurovision Song Contest. So we have to thank soccer for experiencing a Coupe Decale tune at Europe’s traditional contest for song and songwriting, infamous for it’s often ubercheesy contestants. Nothing more to say, I like it!
P.S.: The last World Cup in 2006 brought to live a nice little sampler with Coupe Decale soccer tunes, called ‘Shoote Decale’. You will notice that a lot of soccer songs from Ivory Coast are celebrating superstar Didier Drogba, most likely as living in Europe as a famous and rich soccer player is one of the dreams expressed in this music coming true.
K’naan – Wavin’ Flag
‘Wavin’ Flag’ by Somali-Canadian artist K’naan is the official World Cup anthem for a big beverage company we all know. The song was first recorded as a charity song for Haiti and contained some revolutional potential in the original version, no wonder, K’naan is well known as being an artist deeply concerned with politics. The artist stated the changes for the World Cup version are due to the uplifting and unifying spirit of the event, the mood of the song is now “more open, more inviting, more celebratory”. Well, Coca Cola was right in recognizing that “lyrical references to ‘a violent prone, poor people zone’ and people ‘struggling, fighting to eat’ didn’t fit the campaign’s themes”…
Coca Cola also comissioned a lot of bilingual versions, you know, being a multinational player celebrating the cultures of this planet. I picked Nigeria and Thailand for you, the thai version is my absolute favorite ;)
K’naan, Banky W, M.I. – Wavin’ Flag (Naija Remix)
K’naan & Tattoo Colour – Wavin’ Flag (Thai Version)
That was part 1, stay tuned for more of the best recent songs about goals, balls and horns celebrating 11 sweaty men on a big green rectangle.
