Because of the World Cup we’ll have a special edition Music Match where we’ll look at 3 different music videos from the official themes the world cup has had over the decades. Having to listen to every single theme made me realize that there really aren’t many good themes and music videos only appeared in the last few decades. There seems to be more than one official song for each world cup also, some a little more to do with the country itself while others just random. In the same way the lyrics can be very related or only vaguely. Also worth noting that most themes seem to be in Spanish or have some sort of Spanish word at the very least, but enough of that and let’s get to the 3 best music video songs that the World Cup has had to offer.
Adelén – Olé
A Norwegian singer brought this song for the World Cup in Brazil, I have to admit I dont’ remember this song ever playing but I do like that it incorporates th flags of various countries and shows off a little of Brazil while still keeping it a bit generic. The song is not the catchiest but it isn’t bad by any means and the music video really does a fine job making you feel excited about the fact that it’s a world event.
We begin with
Shakira – Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
Shakira got a lot of airplay with this song, it’s a little weird having Shakira for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa but at least she did try to make it as African as she could. The music video tries to have as much African imagery as it can while having footage of random games from the various countries. Oddly enough she doesn’t feature any spanish lyrics but isntead from some native languages from there. This might’ve been the main theme but she had previously performed a world cup song before even if it didn’t have the same promotion.
Ricky Martin – The Cup of Life / La Copa de la Vida
We finish with what is likely the most famous World Cup song from France 98 that also sparked the trend of Latino Singers for the next few years. The song doesn’t seem to feature a lot of World Cup imagery, instead promoting Ricky Martin as a huge star with all the constant pictures being taken of him but at the very least the lyrics do seem to be more about the cup. The Spanish version of the song seems to be the most famous version of it and I’d agree that it’s the superior version. Both versions are here so you can compare and the energy in the Spanish version can just be felt.
If you enjoyed the music or have any thoughts let me know by commenting below or tweeting at me. You can also share the article or hit me up an email with your thoughts, it’s nice to hear from other fans.
