More ‘Official’ Songs Than You Can Shake a CD at

May 24th, 2006 | by: Stacy-Marie Ishmael | Comments(5)

What makes a World Cup song ‘official’? Is it the sanction of the country’s football federation or its adoption by adoring fans? These questions are particularly important to T&T, given that there are no less than four tributes to the Soca Warriors jostling for the title of the ‘official’ T&T World Cup song.

When I first blogged about the supposed ‘official’ song done by the TnT SocaBoys (aka those two guys from Leeds), I had no idea that a mere month later the situation would become even more complicated.

A bit of history, so you will know where this is coming from:

The anthem – Maximus “The Gladiator” Dan released his Soca Warriors song – Fighter – in late 2005. The song, with its aggressive beats and chorus of “I am a Soca Warrior, I say win or lose I am a fighter”, struck a chord with the Warrior fans and was quickly adopted as the Warrior Nation’s anthem. The song has been generally associated with the Soca Warriors since, and has featured prominently in various documentaries made about the Soca Warriors, and been referrered to as the ‘team’s anthem’ in two different articles on the FIFA website. Gamers will recognise the track from the EA Sports’ football title, as it is one of two Trinidadian songs included in the FIFA World Cup game’s soundtrack. Recently, Maximus, an avid Warriors supporter, revealed in an interview that he had given the rights to the song to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) “for nothing.”

Leeds get it on – In March, two gentlemen from Leeds, England claimed to have bought the rights to release the ‘official’ T&T World Cup song from – the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation. The song was released in England on May 1st. Trinidadian critics were not impressed. [Update: According to a report in the Trinidadian newspaper, Newsday, states that "the TTFF said that there has been contact between the two parties, but there has been no formal agreement or go ahead for the Leeds duo to produce the official World Cup song." Curiouser and curiouser.]

Bidding for musical glory – March was quite a busy (and lucrative) month for the TTFF, as they entered into partnership with e-bay. A special TnT version of e-bay Deutschland – tnt.ebay.de – has since been launched, featuring numerous articles and trivia about the Warriors, including a series of podcasts (the site and podcasts are all in German). On top of this Trinibagonianisation of the e-bay website, there is – you guessed it – an e-bay sponsored “offizieller song der fussball nationalmannschaft von Trinidad und Tobago.” In short, yet another ‘official’ T&T World Cup song. The song – You You You – won’t be released until June 16th. Frankly, I don’t think it should ever be allowed to hit the airwaves. At least the TnT SocaBoys’ version paid homage to T&T culture, with its use of steelpan and old-time calypso rhythms. This creation of James Kakande is a nightmare combination of cheesy reggae beats and worse lyrics – “You, you, you / Let’s dance to calypso / You’ve gotta whole lot of soul / Trinidad & Tobago.”

The real Mckoy? – Just over a week ago, Gino Mckoy announced on the Soca Warriors Online Forums that he had gone to Trinidad and released The Offical Soca Warriors Anthem and Warrior Nation Tune. McKoy described his tune as an “undoubtedly Trini” chant designed for the accompaniment of a riddim section. Reviews have been mixed.

–

I haven’t even mentioned any of the other tribute songs that have been penned since the beginning of our World Cup campaign – you can listen to more than two dozen of them over at the TntInGermany website. My beloved Fighter aside, I’m quite partial to 3 Canal’s Vibes It Up and jointpop’s Little Giants. In fact, jointpop might be able to claim the rights to the first T&T Warriors tribute, as Little Giants was released way back in 2001.

That’s a lot of Warrior music.