''Vamos vamos Argentina'' () is a very popular

chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, used by supporters in sports events, mainly in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches of the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

and related celebrations.

Background

The song has its origin in a political campaign launched by the government in 1974 with a slogan "Argentina potencia" ("Argentina power") and a song called "Contagiate Mi Alegría" written by Fernando Sustaita and Ernesto Olivera. Fans of football clubs such as

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

adapted the song as football chants, and it was then turned into "Vamos, vamos, Argentina" with different lyrics. The song was recorded for the

1978 World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by ...

held in Argentina, and became highly popular.

Legal disputes

The attribution of the song became a tangled issue as Sustaita and Olivera were not credited as the songwriters in the released recordings, instead in some versions the authors were credited as Nemara (Néstor Rama) and Rimasi, in others Rama and Julio Fontana, while Juan Carlos Zaraik Goulu and Néstor Rama were registered as the authors of the song. Sustaita and Olivera then complained of plagiarism, and a settlement was reached whereby Sustaita was given the credit as composer, with Olivera and Zaraik Goulu the lyricists. The issue was further complicated by the existence of a different song written by Enrique Núñez and Roque Mellace in 1977 that has the same title of "Vamos, vamos, Argentina". Núñez and Mellace claimed royalties for the song despite the two songs being entirely different apart from the first two lines (''Vamos, vamos Argentina'' / ''vamos, vamos a ganar''). In August 2007, the civil court controversially found in favour of Núñez and Mellace and ordered that royalties be paid to the pair.

Lyrics

The adjective ''quilombera'' used in the third line is a mildly obscene term. In the

lunfardo Lunfardo (; from the Italian ''lombardo'' or inhabitant of Lombardy in the local dialect) is an argot originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires and from there spread to other urban are ...

argot, ''

quilombo A ''quilombo'' (; from the Kimbundu word , ) is a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by people of African origin, and others sometimes called Carabali. Most of the inhabitants of quilombos, called quilombolas, were maroons, a term for e ...

'' means

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

; the word is used by Argentines (when profanity is tolerated) to mean "bedlam" or "mess". In this case, ''quilombera'' is used to describe the fact that football fans make a lot of noise and usually a mess of throwing

confetti Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''con ...

when goals are scored. On recordings, or when profanity is not tolerated, ''quilombera'' is replaced by ''bullanguera'' ("rackety"). This chant unites all of Argentina's supporters regardless of their club allegiance. It is often the first song attempted by Argentine expatriates when the national team visits a foreign country. Usage has spread to

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

teams, but not to the

Los Pumas The Argentina national rugby union team (Spanish: ''Selección de rugby de Argentina'') represents Argentina in men's international rugby union; it is organised by the Argentine Rugby Union ( es, Unión Argentina de Rugby). Nicknamed the Pumas ...

rugby union team (normally they use ''Yo te daré, te daré una cosa'' -''I will give you/I will give you a thing''-). The other most popular chant among Argentine fans is ''Es un sentimiento ... no puedo parar'' ( en, It's a feeling ... I can't stop 'cheering''video in Germany WC
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References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vamos Vamos Argentina Football songs and chants Argentina national football team Argentine music Spanish-language songs Year of song missing Songs about Argentina