Best offical WC Song?

[zanela]

This may not be currently the most football pertinent poll, but I was taking a trip down memory lane and came upon several past FiFA WC anthems, some better than the others ofc. As music has the potential to enhance the football experience, I recall three in particular that transcended the time of the mundial and made an impression globally.
So which one of them, acc to you, best captured the spirit of the game?

 

[Barcaman]

Great thread.

First song is the best but Ricky Martin's one is more fitting for football.

Waka waka ... is just bad.

Hot hot hot from Arrow in 1986 WC in Mexico is nice too.

[youtube]OkGgdIBX1to[/youtube]

 

[Horatio]

Do videogames count? Definitely captures the spirit of the game.

[youtube]LODkVkpaVQA[/youtube]

 

[DennyCrane]

Ricky Martin's song best captures the spirit of football and a WC. In general, the 1998 WC had some really catchy stuff.

Like this one:

And of course, this one, which is also on the 1998 WC sampler I think:

 

[arjunanand1]

La Copa de La Vida. Mainly for nostalgia because that's the first ever WC I watched.

 

[Yannik]

What qualifies as a WC song? Wasn't the 7 nation army song a WC anthem aswell?
From this list however clearly Ricky Martin because Waka Waka is bad and the first song is absolute horrible.

this one still gets me.

 

[Alik]

I loved Waka Waka

Lifts your spirits nicely, and I associate to good times.

 

[vinni]

Loved waka waka and k'naan song as well lol. Good times. My favourite must be this one though

[youtube]Q_YiG7yN7PY[/youtube]

 

[Alik]

Loved waka waka and k'naan song as well lol. Good times. My favourite must be this one though

Yup, that one was nice too.

 

[Horatio]

Noticed how the Waka Waka video is anti-Ronaldo and Pro-Messi =P

 

[Yannik]

I just don't get why they chose to have a South American singer performing a song for a World Cup in South Africa, whereas she's singing lyrics of a Cameroon march song + mixing some spanish into it.

Don't get wtf this has to do with South Africa. Don't they have any local musicians that could actually make, you know, african music?

 

[Alik]

I just don't get why they chose to have a South American singer performing a song for a World Cup in South Africa, whereas she's singing lyrics of a Cameroon march song + mixing some spanish into it.

Don't get wtf this has to do with South Africa. Don't they have any local musicians that could actually make, you know, african music?

Since when is it a rule to have the local musicians perform the world cup anthem? Most of the times it isn't so.

Didn't know Ricky Martin was french.

Also:

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", called "Waka Waka (Esto es África)" in Spanish, is a song by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, featuring the South African band Freshlyground.

 

[Yannik]

Since when is it a rule to have the local musicians perform the world cup anthem? Most of the times it isn't so.

Didn't know Ricky Martin was french.

Also:

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", called "Waka Waka (Esto es África)" in Spanish, is a song by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, featuring the South African band Freshlyground.

It isn't a rule, but wouldn't it be nice to have an actual african artist make the song for the first african World Cup? You know some actual piece of SA culture, not a "feature" that hardly does anything besides showing up in the music video. Although, after watching the video I'm not even sure who the members of Freshlyground actually are?

This is by the way the actual song from Cameroon that Shakira sampled hers off without permission of the copyright holders and hasn't ever even crediting the original artist and claimed on her website that it was a completely new song made by herself.

The reception of south africans for this song was also rather negative and I can understand that. They were denied the chance to host the WC and thus showcase something of themselves. The reason why the World Cup is so popular besides the sportive aspect is the whole "culture clash", even the fucking vuvuzelas that we all hated did kinda add to the charme of that tournament. If you're going to host a WC in South Aftica, then make the whole theme fitting, instead of awarding it to a random artist of a completely different continent, who's illegally sampling a WW2 army anthem of a completely different country, mix in some english lyrics that your average X Factor quarterfinalist could write and shake her hips a little. I found the whole thing just weird and from a musical perspective I thought the result was a rather boring song but that's just subjective.

 

[gasgas]

I have watched very few WC theme songs

I choose Waving flag by k'naan

 

[Alik]

It isn't a rule, but wouldn't it be nice to have an actual african artist make the song for the first african World Cup? You know some actual piece of SA culture, not a "feature" that hardly does anything besides showing up in the music video. Although, after watching the video I'm not even sure who the members of Freshlyground actually are?

This is by the way the actual song from Cameroon that Shakira sampled hers off without permission of the copyright holders and hasn't ever even crediting the original artist and claimed on her website that it was a completely new song made by herself.

The reception of south africans for this song was also rather negative and I can understand that. They were denied the chance to host the WC and thus showcase something of themselves. The reason why the World Cup is so popular besides the sportive aspect is the whole "culture clash", even the fucking vuvuzelas that we all hated did kinda add to the charme of that tournament. If you're going to host a WC in South Aftica, then make the whole theme fitting, instead of awarding it to a random artist of a completely different continent, who's illegally sampling a WW2 army anthem of a completely different country, mix in some english lyrics that your average X Factor quarterfinalist could write and shake her hips a little. I found the whole thing just weird and from a musical perspective I thought the result was a rather boring song but that's just subjective.

But aren't you actually contradicting yourself there? You ask: "wouldn't it be nice to have an actual African artist make the song for the first African world cup?" and you proceed to show that the song is from Cameroon - an African country.

So the song is an African song, performed and adapted by a foreign but popular performer and a South African Afro-fusion band and singer. Don't see what's the problem (it actually goes in favor for the "mix of cultures" you mention).

Especially considering how awarding the songs to artists from different countries/continents has never been an issue in past world cups.

And from a musical perspective, I liked it.

That being said, I didn't know that Shakira never gave credit to the original source of the song.