Sports Techy RSS Feed
Sports Techy on Facebook
Sports Techy on Twitter
World Cup Technology
| More

Huh? World Cup Anthem? Can't Hear You Over the Vuvuzelas

June 17, 2010

(WORLD CUP TECHNOLOGY)
What? Whazzat? You say something? Sorry, I can’t hear you, all I hear is this infernal buzzing of 10,000 bees in here.
Evidently there’s a big market in producing “anthems” for World Cup teams. Unsurprisingly England leads the pack, with a Simon Cowell-produced song "Shout for England" currently No. 1 in the British singles chart. It’s a reworking of the obnoxious song “Shout,” by Tears for Fears, currently appearing in a cruise ship near you.
The Associated Press (News - Alert) reports that John Aizlewood, a writer and broadcaster on both music and soccer, said English soccer songs “express the hope of victory, but the expectation is of disappointment.”
Or if you’re South African evidently you prefer ninety minutes of BZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! as your anthem.
Trevor Watts, 35, an AV technician and soccer fan from Bracknell in southern England, explained to the AP why songs are such a strong part of not only the World Cup experience, but soccer in general:
"They can sing the song, and they become like the 12th man (on the team). That's what it is. It is all about inspiring the team to victory.”
Tournament organizer FIFA has named both an official tournament song, the AP reports, Colombian singer Shakira's "WakaWaka (This Time for Africa)," and an official anthem, R. Kelly's "Sign of a Victory."
As if anybody cares what FIFA says the “official” song is.  What are they going to do, arrest anybody who sings something else, like they threw out the Dutch brewery’s mini-skirted girls?
And of course Bono’s done something you don’t particularly need to hear, but you expected that.
This reporter remembers watching English soccer for the first time on those late-night sports channels in high school, and was captivated by the fact that the fans stand and sing for pretty much the entire match. They don’t do that in American football.
It was one reason why we cheered England in the World Cup until America could make a decent showing, thousands of lads standing singing their hearts out just seemed such a wonderful thing to do at a sporting event.
Beats the heck out of BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! for the entire game.
 

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Juliana Kenny