Every four years, the biggest artists around the world are gifted an opportunity: to make the FIFA World Cup song. While creating a song that represents the whole world sounds like a daunting task, the songs are always very simple. The best World Cup songs unite millions around the world, regardless of language. But too often, the official song chosen is boring and repetitive, squandering the opportunity to create excitement for a tournament that drew in over 1.4 billion views for the final game in 2022.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, commonly abbreviated as FIFA, is the worldwide governing body for soccer, which oversees international competition and manages rules for association football. The FIFA World Cup is the world’s biggest men’s soccer tournament, held every four years to crown a world champion out of 48 nations from around the globe.
Every World Cup has an official anthem, as well as other promotional songs that often go just as viral as the official song. Some of the most popular World Cup songs are “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” by Shakira for the 2010 World Cup, “We Are One (Ole Ola)” by Pitbull (2014), and “La Copa de La Vida” by Ricky Martin (1998). Despite these songs not being official anthems, other hits include “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan, for the 2010 World Cup.
However, the World Cup songs of the past few tournaments have gone increasingly… horrible.
In 2022, the official song was “Tukoh Taka” by Nicki Minaj, Maluma, and Myriam Fares. “Tukoh Taka”, which is an onomatopoeic Arabic phrase meaning “knock knock,” is a headache-inducing three minutes and fourteen seconds long, whose only salvation is the short verses rapped by Minaj. The rest repeats, “Tukoh, tukoh taka, tukoh tuh, ta-ta,” with intermittent verses in Spanish and Arabic. Somehow, it took 15 songwriters to write this mosquito-rap song, which is a reminder that it really is okay if my English essay is a day late.
Other songs are not as bad, such as K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag”, a song that every teenager knows the lyrics to: “When I get older, I will be stronger / They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag.” That portion of the song takes 17 seconds, the only 17 listenable seconds of that song. Like seriously, the brightest minds in the music industry couldn’t write a better song for the most-watched event of the year?
In my opinion, the best (and only listen-worthy) World Cup song is “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” by Shakira. Inspired by a Cameroonian military marching song, “Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)”, “Waka Waka” pays homage to the music of the countries of Africa, where the 2010 World Cup took place. The term, waka waka, is Cameroonian slang for “do it”, symbolizing the players in the World Cup fighting for their goals. Even though the lyrics are a bit mundane, the song was a cultural phenomenon, racking up over 4.5 billion views on YouTube, a testament to the impact it made. The upbeat tempo and danceable beat made it the perfect song to go with the World Cup, which brought in over 1 billion live viewers across the world.
This year, “Dai Dai”, by Shakira and Burna Boy, is set to be the official World Cup song. However, it is also worth noting that FIFA released an official World Cup album, including songs by J. Balvin, Jelly Roll, and Elyanna. Although “Dai Dai” has not been released at the time this article was written, I took a listen to “Lighter” by Jelly Roll and Carin Leon. And it SUCKS. As many YouTube commenters noted, it sounds more like a Ford truck commercial than a World Cup song. The same line or two is repeated over and over, and I was impatiently waiting for the end of the song to arrive.
At the end of the day, just write a better song. Please. We’re begging. There are so many talented artists in the world, so I know that it is possible to make good music! And to FIFA– in four years, when you have to choose an official song for the 2030 World Cup, just call me (or anyone) before you make your selection, and I will help you. For free. •