Every four years, billions of people around the world stop, turn, and tune in, drawn together by the love for one game: soccer. But the soccer pitch is not the only common ground. Music and songs reach where words cannot, crossing borders of culture and language. They speak to something more elemental in us: the pull toward friendly competition, the shared desire for joy, and a kind of pride that needs no translation.
Stadiums are not only arenas of soccer competition but also stages for some of the most memorable musical creations in modern history. Few songs capture this better than Waka Waka (this time for Africa), the official anthem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It is a creation born from the cross-cultural collaboration of a Colombian singer of Lebanese descent, African bands and musicians from across the continent. Despite the controversy of cultural appropriation surrounding it, the anthem stands today as one of the most-streamed songs, ranking among YouTube’s top ten videos of all time by views. Since FIFA began officially commissioning anthems for the tournament in the late 1990s, these songs have taken on a life far beyond the tournament. And the tradition continues: on 8 June, FIFA released the official album for the 2026 World Cup. Spanning 18 tracks, it captures the energy and global spirit that define the event.
Given its importance in uniting people and promoting peace, the United Nations has designated May 25 as World Football Day. Building on this, the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time takes place across three nations, where its sound world echoes from every corner: the crowd’s roar after a goal in Mexico, the collective exhale of a near miss in Canada, the chants that build in the stands and the clapping that spreads like a wave through tens of thousands of fans in the U.S., the encouragement screamed in a dozen languages at once, the drums, the horns, the songs carried from home and sung far from it. Here in New York City, around RILM’s International Center, the streets are alive with visitors, where voices in many languages spill through squares, bars, and fan zones, reshaping the city’s soundscape.
Over a few weeks in June and July 2026, the world will beat in one place, and that place will sound like everywhere at once. As with every tournament before it, these sounds will capture the imagination of writers, scholars, and listeners alike.
Watch the first official music video of the 2026 FIFA World Cup here.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature offers over 436 bibliographic records on soccer, in Arabic, Croatian, Danish, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Notably, most publications originate from the U.K. and Germany, which is hardly surprising given the game’s central importance in both countries’ cultures and their distinguished standing in FIFA World Cup history.
The topics covered by music scholars and commentators are wide-ranging. At one end sit fan chants: their rhythms, their politics, and their role as expressions of national identity and belonging. At the other end lie more contentious questions: how the FIFA World Cup’s commercialization of music encroaches on local cultures, and what sound and noise can reveal about the acoustic life of the game. The annotated bibliography below illustrates the variety of approaches and perspectives on sound and music in soccer culture broadly, with a particular focus on the FIFA World Cup.
Annotated bibliography
Alabarces, Pablo. “‘Brazil, tell me how it feels’: Soccer, music, narcissism, and the state, or Mascherano’s failure”, Postcolonial studies 19/2 (2016) 150–167. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2016-45358]
During Brazil’s 2014 World Cup finals, Argentine fans popularized a chant, “Brazil, tell me how it feels”. The chant became viral and provoked a Brazilian response, “Argentina, me diz que se sente”. Both chants discussed the rivalry by joking at each other’s expense. Interestingly, the chant was based on the melody of a song by the U.S. rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, namely Bad moon rising, which was recorded in 1969. The relationship between popular music and soccer chants are discussed as well as the uses of popular music and global pop at the World Cup from 1962 onward, the self-presentation of the local (national) fans before a globalized media scene, and the role of sport icons and heroes for the fans and for the construction of national epics, such as the icons and heroes invoked in the chants, including both Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. In conclusion, contemporary soccer culture must be described and interpreted in the continuous intersection of local discourses and fan practices and global events. (abstract by the author)
Andresen, Willi. “Fair und gerecht” [Fair and just], Virtuos: Das Magazin der GEMA 4 (August 2010) 307–325. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2010-5764]
A discussion of recent sports-related popular songs and the role of fair play in both sports and popular music, based on interviews with the rock/heavy metal singer Doro Pesch, the soccer referee Bibiana Steinhaus, bobsledder Richard Adjei, and the band Revolverheld.
Biti, Vladimir. “Koliko nam je blizak tuđin? Politička pjesma u Hrvatskoj devedesetih” [How familiar do we find the stranger? The political song in Croatia in the 1990s], in New unknown music: Essays in honour of Nikša Gligo/Nova nepoznata glazba: Svečani zbornik za Nikšu Gliga, ed. by Dalibor Davidović, Nada Bezić, and Nikolina Jovanović (Zagreb: DAF, 2012) 351–359. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2012-22248].
Discusses two kinds of political songs in Croatia in the 1990s: the songs of soccer fans performed in stadiums during the war, and the rap songs produced immediately after the Croatian War of Independence. (abstract by editors)
Cae, Hyeon-gyeong (Chae, Hyun-kyung). “디지털 테크놀로지와 ‘우리’ 소리 만들기: 2002년 월드컵 개막식을 통해 본 한국현대음악 반세기” [Digital technology and the shaping of “our” sound: Half a century of contemporary Korean music on the example of the opening ceremony at the 2002 World Cup], Eum’ak gwa minjok/Music and Korea 24 (2002) 179–193. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2002-17440]
Studies of musical change in non-Western cultures have frequently focused on the issues of Westernization and modernization. Entering the new millennium, the distinction between the two phenomena is no longer valid in South Korea, as modern composers’ search for inspiration goes beyond the West. A good example can be found in works performed at the 2002 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, titled Communication. The composer of the work, Kim Soo-chul, a specialist in modern and popular music, used digital technology to depict Korea’s musical evolution and its place in a shifting world, one moving from an Industrial Age centered on the West to an Information Age centered on the East. South Korea’s rising prominence in the global Internet industry reflects the broader impact of digital technology on musical and cultural exchange. Furthermore, the composer used various rhythms from around the world, such as Asian samulnori, Latin, and African rhythms, as the primary musical medium to communicate with all people. As such, he clearly expanded his search for new sound resources beyond the West, and approached music as traditional and modern, rather than Western and Eastern.
Doyle, Jennifer. “World Cup music and football noise: The Lion King, Waka Waka, and the vuvuzela”, in Africa’s World Cup: Critical reflections on play, patriotism, spectatorship, and space, ed. by Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013) 61–69. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2013-56755].
The 2010 World Cup’s anthem Waka Waka (this time for Africa) by Shakira was rooted in plagiarism, as it was built on a song by the Cameroonian group Golden Sounds (later known as Zangaléwa) without initial acknowledgment, an incident that FIFA only admitted was a remix after sustained online activism. This reflects a broader, longstanding pattern of Western artists appropriating African music with little to no credit or compensation. By contrast, the vuvuzela, a plastic horn used by fans at stadiums and beyond, represented something different: the unruly noise of a diverse crowd that resisted the World Cup’s polished commercial spectacle. Ultimately, the official song and the use of the vuvuzela point to the tensions between genuine cultural expression and the homogenizing forces of global commercialism.
The 2010 World Cup anthem Waka Waka (this time for Africa) by Shakira here.
Dubin, Steven C. “Imperfect pitch: Pop culture, consensus, and resistance during the 2010 World Cup”, African arts 44/2 (summer 2011) 18–31. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2011-49515]
The 2010 FIFA World Cup served as a major cultural moment for South Africa as it generated an enormous outpouring of creative expression, including fashion, art objects, street art, and music. A central theme throughout the event was the “Rainbow Nation”, with South Africans temporarily transcending racial, ethnic, and economic divisions to unite around the tournament. At the same time, there were real tensions over ownership, representation, and the clash between FIFA’s officially sanctioned culture and the grassroots creativity of fans and informal entrepreneurs. The event acted as a space where ordinary social barriers dissolved, allowing new forms of solidarity and interaction to emerge through music, art, and popular culture. However, South Africans did not simply get swept up in the spectacle. They also used the moment to critically examine the divisions and inequalities that typically define life in the country.
Goldschmitt, Kariann E. (K.E.). “The sounds of selling out?: Tom Zé, Coca-Cola, and the soundtrack to FIFA Brazil 2014”, Sounding out! The sound studies blog (26 August 2013). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2013-49861]
In 2013, the Brazilian musician Tom Zé faced controversy after he participated in a Coca-Cola commercial tied to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, angering fans who saw it as a betrayal of his countercultural identity. The backlash unfolded against a broader backdrop of public discontent in Brazil, where citizens were protesting the government’s prioritization of World Cup spending over basic social services. Zé responded to the criticism with a satirical EP called Tribunal do Feicebuque, which playfully addressed the “sell-out” accusations while showcasing his signature avant-garde style. Musicians faced tensions as they balanced corporate sponsorships with their artistic credibility, particularly in a politically charged environment. Ultimately, Brazilian audiences were willing to embrace World Cup-related music, but drew the line at content that seemed to celebrate the tournament’s multinational corporate apparatus.
Graakjær, Nicolai Jørgensgaard. The sounds of spectators at football (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2023-2125].
The sounds of spectators at soccer matches are often highlighted by spectators themselves, tourists, commentators, journalists, scholars, and media producers as crucial to the experience of the game. These sounds are often said to contribute significantly to the atmosphere at stadiums and to the conveyance of atmosphere in televised broadcasts. Why and how spectator sounds contribute to the experience of watching the game in these environments is addressed, and what characterizes spectator sounds in terms of their structure, distribution, and significance is discussed. Based on an examination of empirical materials—including the sounds of soccer matches from the English Premier League as they emerge both at the stadium and in the televised broadcast—the sounds of soccer watching are systematically dissected. (abstract by the publisher)
Hammond, Nicol Claire. “Vuvuzelas, pop stars and back-up dancers: The politics of rhythm and noise at the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa”, SAMUS: South African music studies 32 (2012) 37–58. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2012-14517]
When South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010, the sound of the vuvuzela dominated the proceedings. The vuvuzela is both a symbol and a disruption of existing neo-imperial assumptions about sound, race, gender, and global capitalism in South Africa. The construction of African sound in the 2010 FIFA World Cup is evident in the music video of Shakira’s Waka Waka (this time for Africa), the tournament’s official song. In that context, the vuvuzela can be considered a queer intervention into this problematic construct. This becomes apparent when approaching the instrument through the lens of intersecting race, gender, and sexual dynamics. A queer perspective on South African music can therefore reveal the extent to which queer interventions are compatible with post-apartheid South African nationalism, despite attempts to declare queerness un-African. (abstract by author)
Laing, Dave, and Andy Linehan. “Soccer sounds: Popular music and football in Britain”, Popular music history 8/3 (December 2006) 307–325. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2013-22270]
Explores the various ways in which music and soccer have been interlinked in the U.K. over the past century. The aspects covered include early novelty songs; music at stadiums (marching bands, fan-customized songs, and amplified music); mediated music in the form of records by club and national teams, as well as professional singers; and the musical components of television shows devoted to soccer. A continuing struggle exists between music from below and above, in both sports venues and media.
Leung, Godfre. “Working through Margarete: Two fantasies of the German anthem”, in Resounding pasts: Essays in literature, popular music and cultural memory, ed. by Drago Momcilovic (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011) 283–310. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2011-14109].
Examines three moments in the history of postwar Germany, beginning in Munich at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, when the German crowd spontaneously sang the national anthem en masse during a match between the German and Swedish national teams, inciting much discussion in the mainstream Western European press about Germany having finally come to terms with its Nazi past. The mid-to-late 1980s period culminated in the reunification of 1990, but in 1974, the Velvet Underground singer Nico’s performance of the anthem received a profoundly different reaction. Nico’s solo album The end (1974) is discussed with a focus on the consequences of her appropriation and performance of the role of Margarete, the seductive figure of death from Paul Celan’s poem Todesfugue. Past historical moments illuminate the present, and though the very different cultural-political climates of each resist subsumption into an evolutionary narrative of postwar cultural memory, the logic of the representation and representability of the German nation in 1974 and in the period immediately preceding reunification in 1990 remains highly relevant today.
Sonntag, Albrecht. “Entre indifférence mutuelle et inspiration réciproque: Le football, un médiateur culturel tardif entre la France et l’Allemagne” [Between mutual indifference and reciprocal inspiration: Soccer, a belated cultural mediator between France and Germany], in Populärkultur und deutsch-französische Mittler: Akteure, Medien, Ausdrucksformen [Popular culture and German-French intermediaries: Actors, media, forms of expression], ed. by Dietmar Hüser and Ulrich Pfeil (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2015) 185–198. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2015-93214].
Soccer, as a widespread cultural practice, played an important role in Franco-German municipal partnerships (twin cities) and special sports events initiated by civil society (non-governmental individuals and groups) in the postwar years. This was, however, not the case in the major soccer leagues with mass audiences. These events were characterized by pronounced mutual indifference, rooted in stereotypes that were immutably resistant even to potential intermediaries such as players and sports journalists. These patterns of perception did not change until the 1998 and 2006 FIFA World Cups hosted by France and Germany, respectively. The ethnically mixed French world championship team of 1998 permanently influenced not only German soccer, which decided to model its own reboot on the French training system, but also social debate about the pending reform of citizenship law. The World Cup in France underwent a similar transformation in 2006, when German structures became the model for modernizing French professional soccer, and the German team acquired a new, likable, and multicultural image. The evolution of this relationship is connected to the Europeanization of soccer more broadly, which inevitably led to systematic benchmarking and a convergence of practices.
Uno, Koremasa and Rejī (Reggie). 日本代表とMr. Children [Mr. Children and the best of Japan] (Tōkyō: Soru Media/sol media inc., 2018). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2018-63504]
Details the collaboration between the Japanese pop band Mr. Children and the Samurai Blue national soccer team in the presentation of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany.
Wang, Wanwan.《早安隆回》的再媒介化 [Re-mediatization of the Chinese pop song Zao‘an Longhui], Renmin yinyue/People’s music 4:720 (April 2013) 78–81. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-6466]
By the end of December 2022, the Chinese pop song Zao’an Longhui had been played more than 10 billion times online for its dynamic rhythm, bright, concise melody, and high-spirited narrative. This phenomenon earned it the status of a “super song”. The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, which lasted more than three years in China, and the 2022 Qatar World Cup were not only major worldwide events but also opportunities to promote the song widely. Eventality is an indispensable social indicator of postmodern art’s characteristics and an important aspect of artistic concepts, artistic practice, and even public reception. It is also worth noting that the promotion of the song as an event is a production practice directly influenced by mass media. Examining how media reshapes the relationship between “meaning” and “event” in art offers a constructive way to understand the song’s popularity today.
Yun, Kyoim. “The 2002 World Cup and a local festival in Cheju: Global dreams and the commodification of shamanism”, The journal of Korean studies 11/1 (fall 2006) 7–39. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2006-51239]
Multiple actors, both consciously and inadvertently, participated in the commodification of the shamanic tradition of Jeju Island during the 2002 FIFA World Cup festivities in South Korea, when several matches were held on the island. Approaching this sports event as an opportunity to draw global attention to Jeju and increase tourism on the island, the central and provincial governments sponsored various festivals in which shamanism was frequently appropriated as a cultural commodity. During one Jeju festival held during the tournament, diverse agents—including shamans, local residents, nonstate elites, and representatives from cultural institutions and the national and provincial governments—fashioned Jeju shamanism to foster their imagined global audience’s cultural curiosities. The desire to cultivate Jeju’s prestige mobilized many people. However, in the process of controlling and directing customary rituals for public display in specific performance contexts, the participants’ asymmetrical social positions and differing expectations and interests inevitably led to tension. Furthermore, the poor domestic and foreign attendance at festival events and the scant media coverage they received confirmed the nation’s preexisting power differentials, which globalization discourse and practices often mask. (abstract by the author)
