With footy fever starting to clutch at European cities already, fans are trying on soundtracks for size, sweeping artists into viral competitions they probably didn’t even know existed.
It’s summer. The beers are flowing, the sun - with whom we’re in a toxic relationship with - may finally come out to play, and the mood is jubilant. You can smell the pent up, frenzied energy that, let’s face it, following years of crises after crises, is ready to burst out having been shuttered up, locked tightly away thanks to spiralling costs.
But when you look back at the Euro 2024 hype in a few years' time, which song is it going to be that nudges the smile back across your face?
Euronews culture delved deep into the best contenders for the songs you might be singing along to during the 2024 UEFA European Championships.
This championship’s song is an entirely forgettable smorgasbord of Coldplay-esque lyrics, cardboard cutout ‘uplifting synths’ and melody dropouts. MEDUZA, OneRepublic and Leony’s ‘Fire’ is more like a damp wet cloth. But it’s always like that for the official UEFA songs. Go on, name last time’s one, or the time before without looking.
Imagine it. You’re walking along the road on a summer’s day near the trendy part of town, and you see a discarded vinyl record sitting sadly on the side of the road. It beckons you. You get back to your apartment studded with plants, blow the dust off the 1210s you’ve not even glanced at for four years and hit play. The needle gears up and starts to spin. Whoopsie, it’s playing in 33 RPM rather than the 45 it should be, but you recognise it as that classic Panjabi MC - Mundian To Bach Ke that was a major hit in your childhood (gen Zs look away). Well, that’s kind of the intro to the delightful Lovely&Monty - ‘Diese EM 2024’ before the singing kicks in, celebrating the diversity of Germany.
This song has actually been sweeping the nation’s hearts. Written by two Punjabi brother taxi drivers living in Hamburg since the 80s, and providing a bit of sunshine in an otherwise dark and gloomy political landscape, that seems to be hovering over Germany ever since far-right party AfD came second in Germany in the European elections a couple of weeks ago.
Now the other song that is likely to be launched into the stratosphere of football song immortality (think Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds' 'Three Lions,' The White Stripe's 'Seven Nation Army' and Helene Fischer’s ‘Atemlos durch die Nacht’ - that kind of calibre) is German pop artist Peter Schilling 1983 hit ‘Major Tom.’
Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Space Odyssey,’ this song is the gift that keeps giving, having been featured in other television and film hits throughout the years (Breaking Bad, Atomic Blonde and Deutschland 83 just to name a few). It’s got both an English and German version and does funny things to my brain when I try to listen to it in the language I didn’t last listen to it. But compared to some of the other crap music there, it’s a good one. Even conservative (CSU) Bavarian leader Markus Söder sees it as an essential.
Although technically banned at this tournament following a massive shitstorm that emerged after posh party goers chanted “foreigners out – Germany for the Germans” to Gigi D’Agostino’s hit ‘L’amour toujours’’ refrain earlier this summer, this one gets a special mention.
UEFA has officially banned the catchy 90s classic from stadiums in order to promote inclusivity, but if the photo that is doing the rounds on Twitter of Hungarian football fans holding a ‘Free Gigi’ sign is to be believed, the chant could rear its ugly head at particularly rowdy nationalistic matches.
With lyrics consisting of “da da da da da” Provinz’s ‘Glaubst Du’ meaning ‘do you believe’ was crowned as the song that opened the first match between Germany and Scotland this week. It’s ok, neutral even. But despite its positive message and indie direction, it is spectacularly mediocre.
