The German fans had hoped for something different. They had petitioned for Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom (Völlig losgelöst)” to be the celebratory anthem for the 2024 European Championships – after all, the tournament, which starts on June 14, is taking place in Germany. But they got something different: since yesterday you can hear the new EM song “Fire”, a collaborative product between the Italian dance trio Medusa, the American singer Ryan Tedder from the band OneRepublic and the German singer Leony (“Remedy”). Three artists for one song – hat trick or own goal?First a sample of the lyrics: “We’re On Fire Tonight / Like A Million Diamonds In The Sky (Ooh, ooh) / And We’re Lost In All The Lights / Here Together / We’re On Fire Tonight.” Depending on how you count, that’s 24 words; according to the song credits, nine people contributed to it, so that’s 2.6 words per person. Since three words rhyme here – “Tonight”, “Lights” and “Tonight” again – and the text does not develop any thought in terms of content, the result can be considered quite acceptable. Even if the effort is astonishing: It is roughly as if nine players ran towards the goal with the ball and then forcefully slammed it against the crossbar – not a goal, but also no reason to substitute.
Now to the music: A chain of four made up of roughly the same number of tones tries to keep the song’s off-site playing field as small as possible and avoid any surprises. Completely successful. And as a player you could relax and warm up to the beat on the sidelines – it’s not too lame, but not too exhausting either. You can’t expect more from a EM song.
But many German fans had completely different ideas about “Fire”. They have already opened fire on social networks and covered singer Leony with hatred and malice. Apparently, for them, football is the most beautiful secondary theater of war in the world. A minor thing like “Fire” doesn’t deserve that.
