One of the lasting memories of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – besides the incredible soccer and game-winning goals by Landon Donovan and Andrés Iniesta – is the K’Naan song “Wavin’ Flag.”
Whenever I hear the song, particularly the remixed version that played seemingly during every commercial break advertising the FIFA 2010 World Cup video game, I still get goosebumps thinking about the first ever World Cup staged in Africa. Though it wasn’t even an official anthem or song – those titles were given to that annoying Shakira song “Waka Waka” and some R. Kelly song I don’t even remember – anyone who paid any attention to the World Cup would argue otherwise.
The 2014 World Cup in Brazil has been every bit as exciting and dramatic as the last one and has broken all kinds of records for viewership in the U.S. even while ushering in an insufferable amount of media attention to the sport (I’ve groaned a lot reading articles about how soccer can better appeal to Americans, how it’s destroying the country, etc.), but if you asked me what song has defined the World Cup so far, I would have trouble coming up with too much more than the Sigur Ros song ESPN used for its pre-World Cup promo or the theme music they’ve used liberally in their coverage. By the way, “I Believe That We Will Win,” which Romelu Lukaku made invalid, doesn’t really count as a song.
Interestingly enough, this year’s World Cup has had more officially sanctioned songs (four) than ever before with Shakira’s latest throwaway song “La La La (Brasil 2014)” winning the YouTube war over Pitbull’s “We Are One (Ole Ola)” by a count of 202 million to 172 million. “Dar Um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)” and “Tatu Bom de Bola” round out the batch of songs I wouldn’t know existed if not for Wikipedia.
I’d have a hard time rattling off the names of other World Cup songs in previous years so it would seem “Wavin’ Flag” is the exception not the rule. That’s too bad.
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