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Alphabeat guitarist: »Danish Dynamite« ignites
Usually the songs that are commissioned by football associations for major tournaments are there to practice solidarity between the teams and the fans, or even between the national team and the nation. When things go well, the songs are so accepted that they not only echo out of the loudspeaker system in the stadium, but are also sung - the eternal ideal are the »Three Lions« from Lighting Seeds and Baddiel & Skinner at the European Championship 1996 in England : "It's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home".
But this time football is embarking on long journeys across Europe (and to Azerbaijan).
There will be significantly fewer fans in the stadiums.
And hopefully nothing will happen to those who are there.
Instead of learning the tournament squad's number by heart, those who stayed at home look worriedly at corona cases and “reserve bladders”.
But associations, broadcasters and sponsors are still trying to stir up at least some anticipation for this strange EM 2021 - also with music.
The tournament song
One of the oddities of the tournament is its official name, "
Uefa Euro 2020
",
which has fallen out of time
. The European federation had given the order for the official song to the Dutch DJ and producer Martin Garrix, a kind of meek David Guetta, a long time before the actually planned date. For "We Are The People" he got prominent support from Bono and The Edge from U2 from Ireland, which did not qualify for the EM.
Amazingly, one recognizes the arpeggio sounds of the guitarist The Edge more accurately than the voice of Bono, but they too are soon drowned in a keyboard-filled melodious sound.
Lines like "Streets of Dublin to Notre Dame" and "Broken Bells and a Broken Church" suggest that the text was written with a fire in mind rather than a football tournament.
But you will hear that in the course of four weeks.
At the opening ceremony in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Garrix and the U2 stars will only play virtually, as Uefa announced in advance: To the sounds of "We Are The People", the playing field will be transformed into a white-blue flame, and millions of lights will become one Energy field generated, it was said.
Singer Bono is projected onto the stage.
Anticipation?
The new
On the other hand, the official songs of the countries that qualify for the first time radiate real anticipation.
North
Macedonia
sends the group Vis Risovi into the race with a spotted Gröhl rock song. In the video, the whole country is bathed in red-orange colors, from the combine harvester to the futuristic mini-Atomium, old star Goran Pandev looks calmly into the camera, and in the text, if the Google translation is to be believed, it says: “Leave it all now Shaking Europe from a strong, powerful Macedonia «.
The other newcomer to the European Championship is
Finland
.
In the traditional ice hockey nation one tries very expressly to stir up some euphoria around the footballers known as "eagle owls".
In an advertising clip, children in national jerseys from other countries are playing football and are encouraged to dress in white and blue.
In addition, the song »Sukupolvien unelma« plays, a musically comparatively complex composition by the Berlin-based singer Niila.
He got the job through the short official channels: Niila's brother is Paulus Arajuuri, defense chief and sometimes even team captain of the Finns.
Anger
France
presented the song "Ecris mon nom en bleu" at the presentation of the EM squad in mid-May. However, the rather hypnotic track by the rapper Youssoupha did not suit everyone: A leading politician of the right-wing Rassemblement National was angry about the choice of the rapper, speaking of "dregs". The ministers for sport and culture declared their support, but the president of the FFF football association, 79-year-old Noël Le Graët, distanced himself - the music for the team presentation was the idea of young people in the advertising department, he didn't need it, and in general: "Some like rap, others less".
In
England
,
too
, a rap track is supposed to represent the new generation of players - the BBC even made a documentary about the making of »We Are England«, in which rappers Krept and Konan talk to players and coach Gareth Southgate about how a suitable EM -Song should be.
It will probably not please the stadium visitors, who have already booed the English players for their anti-racist knee gesture.
The covers
When
Scotland
qualified for a major tournament for the first time in more than 20 years, the players celebrated appropriately in the dressing room. A short clip made the rounds on social media in which the footballers sang "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" with a wonderful Scottish accent. The disco song by the Spanish duo Baccara from the deep seventies promptly became the new anthem for the Scottish team - for the tournament there is now an elegant cover version by the Glasgow rock band The Fratellis.
Elegance is not the strong point of the anthem that
is supposed to cheer on
the so-called »red devils« from
Belgium
: The beat of »Deviltime« is abundantly dull, but quite impulsive, but the awesome thing is that it quotes MC Hammer, of course its classic » U Can't Touch This ”.
For
Slovakia
, on the other hand, the old partisan hymn »Bella Ciao« has been rewritten.
Alone in the middle of the big football field, the singer Dália Migaľová crouches in traditional costume and sings "Daj góla, daj!" - in the cut, Marek Hamšík & Co. hit the goal.
The jokers
What "Three Lions" had also proven was that a dose of humor can do a football song as such a good thing.
Several countries take this to heart during this otherwise not-so-fun time.
For the Czech Republic there is accordion punk garnished with a charming music video about a family man on the way to the football pub (shot before 2021?) - special guest: a turtle named Nedvěd.
Italy,
on the other hand, made the making-of for the song itself: »Coro Azzurro« by the sports comedy trio Gli Autogol is bursting with references (Zidane's headbutt, Luca Toni's ear-wrench), national coach Roberto Mancini also appears, and it's quite a catchy tune it in spite of everything.
The best mood, however, is the contribution from
Denmark
, it comes from the band Alphabeat and plays with the nostalgia of football fans: The slogan of "Danish Dynamite" from the most glorious days of Danish football is taken up again.
The national players also sing along themselves - like in the days of Udo Jürgens.
And when the guitar solo comes, midfield director Christian Eriksen even plays air guitar.
The Germans
Speaking of Udo Jürgens: The
DFB
has not published an official song for tournaments for a number of years (although there was a close cooperation with "Everyone for Everyone" by Felix Jaehn and Herbert Grönemeyer in 2016).
That's why the German EM songs this year come from the broadcasting television stations - which was a successful pairing at the 2014 World Cup and Andreas Bourani's “Auf uns”, for example.
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Johannes Oerding (with hat) and Wincent Weiss
Photo: Universal Music
This time, ARD selected the song "The Good Times" by Wincent Weiss and Johannes Oerding for its EM coverage.
The soccer connection is limited: "I can't control yesterday and tomorrow anyway / So I think in moments" - is that what the striker who approaches the goalkeeper alone thinks?
Also in the video, which will only be released on Sunday, bro romance on the campsite is more important than football.
The title, which the new rights holder Magenta TV presents as its official song, has a bit more football kitsch potential: Daniel Hall's song is called "On the Field of Dreams", and the ball even rolls in the video.