The "FIFA Anthem" or "FIFA Hymn" is an instrumental song played at the beginning of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

-sponsored events, such as

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

matches and tournaments (like international friendlies, the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

or any other association football competitions), usually as the participants enter the playing area. Occasionally, there have been instances where a different song has been used in its place, such as

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

' "

Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...

" used at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. Since the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

and

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...

, a new anthem, "Living Football" is used as the entrance music when Both team's national flags and FIFA flags enter the ground, and "

Seven Nation Army "Seven Nation Army" is a song by American rock duo the White Stripes. It is the opening track on their fourth studio album, ''Elephant'' (2003). V2 Records released the song to American alternative radio on February 17, 2003, as the lead single ...

" by

The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wit ...

is used for the players entrance.

History

Early years (1994–2004)

It was first played at the 1994 World Cup, composed by

Franz Lambert Franz Lambert (born 11 March 1948) is a German composer and organist. He is an avid Hammond organ player; however, he is more noted in later years for playing the Wersi range of electronic organs. During his career he has released over 100 alb ...

and is completely instrumental with no lyrics.

Rob May Rob May (born 15 February 1969, in London) is a musician, songwriter and record producer. May co-founded and toured with Beehive, who won a MOBO Best Gospel Act award in 1997 for their self-produced album, ''Brand New Day''. He has played keyb ...

and

Simon Hill Simon Hill (born 1 November 1967) is an English football commentator based in Australia. British-based work After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 1990, Hill began his work in the field of journalism, initially writing for news ...

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

it.

Rearranged version (2004–2018)

In 2004, the song was rearranged and re-recorded with improved acoustics by

Gota Yashiki is a Japanese musician, both an independent acid jazz artist and drum/bass player, as a member of the band Simply Red. Biography He was born in Kyoto, Japan, on 26 February 1962, where at a young age he learned how to play traditional Japan ...

and it is this version that is currently used by FIFA before the start of matches. It was used in the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, though the 1994 version was used at the final of the 2006 one.

New Anthem - Living Football (2018–present)

In 2018, FIFA commissioned

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...

and

Lorne Balfe Lorne Balfe (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish composer and record producer of film, television, and video game scores. A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, Balfe is known for his composing music for big-budget films like ...

to compose a new theme to be used at

in Russia. The theme, named "Living Football" to coincide with FIFA's new slogan, was played before every World Cup match, as the volunteers began to unveil the giant 2018 FIFA World Cup logo (replaced by the drawing of the FIFA World Cup Trophy in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

) at the pitch, along with the flags of the two nations in every match. The "FIFA Anthem" itself - which always played when the players walked out onto the stadium pitch, was replaced by "

" of

for that tournament. The trend has continued at all subsequent FIFA-sanctioned tournaments, including the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup,

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

, and the FIFA Women's World Cup. The "Living Football" theme was used again at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup, which was held in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and also at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and the

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

References

{{FIFA navbox FIFA music Association football songs and chants Association football anthems Association football events official songs and anthems European anthems Anthems of organizations

History

Early years (1994–2004)

Rearranged version (2004–2018)

New Anthem - Living Football (2018–present)

See also

References