Three Lions

"Three Lions" was the official song of the England football team for the 1996 European Championships, which were held in England. The music was written by The Lightning Seeds, with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner providing the lyrics. The song was a much bigger success than most football songs, capturing the Zeitgeist perfectly.

Related Topics:
England football team - 1996 - European Championships - England - The Lightning Seeds - David Baddiel - Frank Skinner - Zeitgeist

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The lyrics spoke not of unbounded optimism for victory, but instead told of how, ever since 1966 and the one unequivocal success of the English football team, every tournament has ended in dashed hopes and the feeling that England will never again reach those heights ("Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming / Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming"). The song's intro included samples of pessimism from football commentators Alan Hansen ("I think it's bad news for the English game"), Trevor Brooking ("We're not creative enough; we're not positive enough"), and Jimmy Hill ("We'll go on getting bad results"). Despite the failures of the past, each tournament is greeted with fresh hopes that this might be the year they do it again, and the song's exuberant chorus proclaimed that "It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home".

Related Topics:
1966 - Alan Hansen - Trevor Brooking - Jimmy Hill

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The Britpop phenomenon was at its peak in 1996, and the Lightning Seeds were one of its leading lights, so their involvement gave the song very wide appeal. It stormed to number one in the singles chart, and as England progressed to the semi-finals, stadia around the country echoed to the sound of fans singing the song after English victories over Scotland, The Netherlands and Spain. It was so popular, in fact, that even other teams loved it. England faced Germany in the semi-finals, and Jürgen Klinsmann said later that the Germans were singing the song themselves on the way to the stadium.

Related Topics:
Britpop - Lightning Seeds - Scotland - The Netherlands - Spain - Germany - Jürgen Klinsmann

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The hopes of a nation were once again dashed when England lost agonisingly in a penalty shootout - the song's lyrics rang true once again. It was subsequently re-recorded with different lyrics (under the title '"Three Lions '98") as an unofficial anthem for England's World Cup campaign in 1998 and landed the number one spot in the singles chart for a second time.

Related Topics:
Penalty shootout - World Cup - 1998

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The video to the 1998 version of the song features a match of some English fans (including the Baddiel, Skinner and Lightning Seeds' singer Ian Broudie) against a group of German fans, most of them having the name of Kuntz on their football shirts. This refers to the fact that the German player Stefan Kuntz shot the 1-1 and almost scored a Golden Goal in extra time, but that was disallowed by the referee due to jostling. He also scored the 5-5 in the penalties, so he became the main nightmare for the English in this game.

Related Topics:
Stefan Kuntz - Golden Goal - Extra time

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The song continues to receive regular radio airplay during any major football tournament.

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