England's World Cup semi-final against Argentina isn't the only contest capturing the nation's attention this week. Away from the pitch, two of Britain's biggest songs are locked in an unlikely battle for the Official Singles Chart crown.
The Chart Battle
Oasis's Wonderwall and Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightning Seeds' Three Lions are vying for this week's number one spot, fuelled by a wave of tournament optimism. Wonderwall has rocketed from No. 11 in last Friday's chart to No. 2 in the Official Charts Company's latest midweek update, second only to Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In, while Three Lions has climbed to No. 3. With the chart week not ending until Thursday night, everything now rests on what happens when England take on Argentina.
“The reality is either of those tracks could be number one this week,” Chris Austin, co-managing director of the Official Charts Company, told The Standard. “It does all hinge around the Argentina result tonight because we're obviously going to see a hell of a lot of consumption in the build-up to that match. Both tracks are gaining momentum at exactly the right point of the chart week. Chart week finishes on Thursday night, published on Friday morning so just imagine the amount of consumption that's going to drive the engagement with Wonderwall and Three Lions if we do pull off a mighty victory on Wednesday night.”
Cultural Significance
For Austin, this year's chart battle feels different from any tournament before it. “It's also exciting that it's a different story this time around. It’s capturing the cultural zeitgeist, the world influences what people do. I think this week is more exciting than it's been a long time because of that Wonderwall connection and the connection we see between the fans and the players at the end of these matches, which is incredibly emotional for those guys on the pitch, but everyone watching it as well, and it's something that's really got to people's heart.”
The chart race raises a bigger question: which song now best captures England? For nearly 30 years, the answer has been obvious. Released ahead of Euro ‘96, Three Lions achieved something no other official football song has managed. While most tournament anthems disappear quickly, Baddiel, Skinner and Broudie created something that has outlived generations of England teams. Its genius was never the chorus. “Football's coming home” has often been mistaken for triumphalism, but the song itself is rooted in hope wrapped in disappointment. Rather than celebrating success, Three Lions celebrates the act of believing despite history suggesting you probably shouldn't. The song has reached No. 1 four separate times, in 1996, 1998, 2018 and 2021, making it the only single by the same artist line-up to top the charts across four different years.
Wonderwall's Rise
Then came Wonderwall. Released by Oasis in October 1995, Noel Gallagher, who ironically admitted he’s not an England football supporter thanks to his Irish parents, never intended it to become a football anthem. It wasn't written for Wembley, penalty shoot-outs or open-top bus parades. Yet somehow it has become all three. After England's dramatic quarter-final victory over Norway, players and supporters stood together singing Wonderwall, scenes that have become increasingly familiar throughout the tournament. Spotify reported UK streams of the song jumped by 51 per cent in the hour after the match, while it climbed into the platform's daily Top 3 with more than 370,000 streams in 24 hours.
Unlike Three Lions, Wonderwall isn't attached to football. It's attached to people. Football has simply borrowed a song Britain already knew by heart. Its resurgence has been helped by Oasis's hugely successful reunion, which has reintroduced the band's catalogue to a younger generation while reminding older fans why Britpop once dominated the country's cultural landscape.
Expert Opinion
The Standard's Culture Editor Martin Robinson believes Wonderwall has succeeded precisely because it wasn't written with football in mind. “The content of the song is almost immaterial on the terraces, it’s about having a big, singalong, rabble-rousing anthem which gives you the excuse to put your arm around other people and belt out a chorus. It’s an emotional thing and a physical release, not an intellectual act. This is why Three Lions has always been painfully embarrassing and why it’s happily been consigned to the bin during this tournament: it’s so on the money, so self-conscious and self-pitying about all the ‘years of hurt’ that it’s almost like a curse. Football fans don’t need it spelling out, or to get maudlin, we just need a big song to hug out all the stress to, and Wonderwall is perfect.”
Whether one overtakes the other in Friday's Official Chart will ultimately depend on what happens against Argentina. But perhaps the bigger story is that England no longer has just one football anthem to fall back on.
