Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

On Thusday, the football World Cup will kick off in Mexico City. But this mix is not really about football, and none of the songs are about sport. You don’t have to like football to enjoy this mix. I’ve used the World Cup as a pretext for compiling 48 songs from the 48 competing nations, as a way of hearing music from some countries which we might otherwise never encounter. Have you ever explored the popular music of Uzbekistan or Curaçao?

I can’t say that I’m amped for the World Cup. The commercialisation, corporatisation and gentrification of football, and the lack of ethics and aggressive expediency exhibited by the voldemordian governing body over the past decades, have stripped the World Cup of almost all of the few virtues it still had. Add to that the bizarre prevailing political circumstances, and I’m one of the many who are verging on giving up on the whole thing. But then there’s the football. If it’s exciting, I might still get into the spirit of the whole thing.

The research for this mix took ages (so long that Colombia’s recently late Toto La Momposina and Ghana’s Ebo Taylor were still alive when I compiled it). I had to sit through some indifferent music, but I also discovered a whole lot of great music I never even knew existed. There were many surprises. For some countries, the choices of suitable and great tracks were vast — how to decide which song should represent the USA, England or France? For other countries, the pickings were rather slimmer.

Some choices seemed obvious to me (Pelé for Brazil; the song that is played when Germany score a goal; the French song that scored the Paris Olympics two years ago; Waterloo in Swedish and French); others I had to chew over (no A-ha for Norway?). I’m quite prepared for it that my choices might not be those of others, of course.

The whole thing provides us with a journey around the world. I have ordered the playlist according to the tournament schedule, in the sequence in which the respective countries first play. So the mix begins with Mexico and South Africa, who will play the opening match on June 11, and ends with Uzbekistan and Colombia, who will play the last of the opening group games. That way, one can play the selected songs before the match, like alternative national anthems.

I have also made a playlist of the same songs in a less random sequence. Let me know if some songs here provided you with a happy discovery or complete surprise.

Enjoy this journey around the world!

1. El Chicano – Que Sera (Mexico) (1976)
2. Hugh Masekela – Thuma Mina (Send Me) (South Africa) (2006)
3. Dean – Instagram (South Korea) (2018)
4. Karel Gott – Rot und schwarz (Czechia) (1969)
5. Barenaked Ladies – Call And Answer (Canada) (1998)
6. Letu Štuke – Mjesto Za Dvoje (Bosnia-Herzegovina) (2005)
7. Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Winter In America (Live) (USA) 1976)
8. La Pimentada – Negra Tomasa (Paraguay) (2016)
9. Dana Al Fardan with the Doha String Quartet – Layla (Qatar) (2016)
10. Double – The Captain Of Her Heart (Switzerland) (1985)
11. Pelé & Elis Regina – Perdão, Não Tem (Brazil) (1969)
12. Manal – Call Me (Morocco) (2021)
13. Tabou Combo – Tu as volé (Haiti) (2000)
14. Big Country – In A Big Country (Scotland) (1983)
15. Bettie Serveert – Palomine (Netherlands) (1992)
16. Bob Evans – Sadness & Whiskey (Australia) 2006)
17. Ajda – Yakar Geçerim (Turkey) (2011)
18. Peter Schilling – Major Tom (Germany) (1983)
19. Izaline Calister – Mi Pais (Curacao) (2009)
20. Towa Tei – Luv Connection (Japan) (1994)
21. Ernesto Djédjé – Ziboté (Cote d’Ivoire) (1977)
22. Julio Jaramillo – Nuestro Juramento (Ecuador) (1972)
23. Abba – Waterloo (French/Swedish) (Sweden) (1974)
24. Emel Mathlouthi – Ma Lkit (Tunisia) (2011)
25. Mocedades – Eres Tu (Spain) (1972)
26. Cesária Évora – Nho Antone Escaderode (Cape Verde) (1999)
27. K’s Choice – Almost Happy (Belgium) (2000)
28. Cairokee – James Dean (Egypt) (2022)
29. Mishaal Tamer – Itty Bitty (Saudi Arabia) (2024)
30. Jaime Roos – Amándote (Uruguay) (1987)
31. Googoosh – Hamsafar (Iran) (1990)
32. Max Merritt & The Meteors – Slipping Away (New Zealand) (1975)
33. Edith Piaf – L’hymne à l’amour (France) (1950)
34. Ismaël Lô – Dibi Dibi Rek (Senegal) (1994)
35. Ilham Al-Madfai – Khuttar (Iraq) (1999)
36. Marit Larsen – Solid Ground (Norway) (2026)
37. Carlos Gardel – La Cumparsita (Argentina) (1958)
38. Khaled – Aïcha (Algeria) (1996)
39. Falco – Der Kommissar (Austria) (1982)
40. Zeyne – liya (Jordan) (2025)
41. Ana Moura – Desfado (Portugal) (2012)
42. Papa Wemba – Le Voyageur (DR Congo) 1992)
43. Black Box Recorder – England Made Me (England) (1998)
44. Oliver Dragojevic – Cesarica (Croatia) (1996)
45. Ebo Taylor – Atwer Abroba (Ghana) (1978)
46. Camilo Azuquita – Borombon (Panama) (1969)
47. Shahzoda – Xasta (Uzbekistan) (2016)
48. Toto La Momposina – Prende La Vela (Colombia) (2002)

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