World Cup Music #1

A cross posting from my Cultural Geography and World of Music blog.

A few World Cup playlists on Spotify.

There is an official World Cup album here.

If you've been watching the coverage (or been in the stadiums in person), you will have heard some familiar songs played at most matches.

These are often from the official FIFA playlist.

This article explains the background to perhaps why certain songs like 'Freed from Desire' and 'Livin' on a Prayer' can often be heard.

The songs are not random. Hundreds — more than 750, in fact, according ​to soccer governing body FIFA — are chosen in advance. FIFA has a "Stadium Entertainment Team" that works with the participating national associations to create playlists ‌that mix stadium classics with country-specific favourites.

Each team has a "signature" song played when the line-up is announced, a warm-up song, and a track that is played if they score a goal. And one set of fans after each game gets to sing along to the post-match winning-team tune.

The playlists give an interesting cultural snapshot of the World Cup, in which 48 teams participated for the first time in ​2026.

Some tracks — such as The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" and, yes, 1990s Eurodance hit "Freed from Desire" by Gala, which has been doing the rounds of ​sports stadiums for at least a decade — have global reach, appearing on more than one list.

Cities also have themes. Here's Mexico City's...

This one collects World Cup songs 2010-2026.

Here's the official World Cup Theme... bland...

The England fans have also adopted this song, which ends up being sung at the end of matches between the team and the fans... 

I'll return to this theme in some later blog posts as we head for the Final, where I explore some of the choices of particular countries and go into more detail on the cultural significance of their choices....