Dizzee Rascal records updated England song for Euro 2012
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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
With expectations of England’s footballers suddenly on the rise, the nation needs a new anthem to unite behind.
Now Dizzee Rascal has risen to the challenge after dashing to the studio to record an “emergency” England Euro 2012 song which he plans to release digitally today.
The chart-topping grime star has updated Shout (For England), the 2010 World Cup song he released with the actor James Corden. The revised lyrics recognise the arrival of Roy Hodgson as manager and Danny Welbeck’s scoring prowess.
The FA will approve of Rascal’s new version, which has dropped the original's “shout-out” to the absent Rio Ferdinand and now stresses the importance of “discipline” and “unity” in Hodgson's deliberately low-key set-up.
It is hoped that Shout (For England) will banish the memory of the “official” FA-endorsed Euro 2012 song, Sing 4 England, “sung” by Chris Kamara, the jovial Sky Sports analyst.
Since England’s participation could end with Sunday night’s quarter-final against Italy, Rascal had to get his song completed and available for download in record time.
Speaking after accepting an Official Charts Company award for scoring five number one singles on Tuesday night, Rascal said: “You’re holding me up. We’ve got to get my car and get to South London to record the England song,” he said.
“We’re remixing it to make it sound like we’re gonna win this time. I was working on the lyrics in the traffic on my way here. I’m still trying to finish it. You want me to read it out to you?”
The Bonkers singer fished a piece of paper from his pocket and unveiled the words soon to be chanted from the Kiev stands: “Come on England, here we go again/But this time we’re gonna stick it out to the end.
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New manager and fresh faces/Top of the leader board, we’re really going places.
I see discipline and I see unity/ I see Welbeck & I see Rooney/ Yeaaah, Come on England…and so on and so forth.”
“We’re gonna get it straight out on download,” the rapper, 27, from Bow, East London, said. “We’ve got to get it out before Sunday so it looks like we’re covered.” Proceeds from the song, released by Simon Cowell’s Syco label, will go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. Rascal told England fans: “This is a chance to get behind your country and help those who need it most!”
For many fans, England has not produced a worthy song since the all-conquering Three Lions, originally recorded by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds in 1996.
When that song was updated in 2010, with the addition of Robbie Williams, the “30 years of hurt” line was replaced by “all these years”, as the gap between England tournament wins stretched to 44 years.
Cowell called the 2012 Shout, based around the 1984 Tears For Fears hit, “incredible”. The music mogul tweeted that the song should have its debut radio airing this weekend.
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