The classic football anthem, sung in every pub and venue whenever England play in an international tournament, has been reworked, more than 25 years since the original was released ahead of Euro ’96.
And the new rendition doesn’t only have a Christmas theme, but also pays tribute to the success of the England Lionesses at the Euros earlier this year, beginning with a recorded version of the England women’s team singing of those memorable words.
Their 2-1 victory in extra-time, the most-watched women’s football game in UK TV history, finally brought it home. But that doesn’t mean we need to stop singing “It’s coming home” – and the new version only serves as a reminder for that.
“At last it’s between me and Mariah Carey for who really is the voice of Christmas,” David Baddiel said, upon release of the track, incidentally in the same week Carey was denied the copyright title of ‘Queen of Christmas’.
“We just had to do it. Christmas World Cup songs are not like buses. If we’d let this opportunity pull away, it would have been a very long wait for the next one,” Skinner added.
The new track has also been released with a video, which blends the old and the new, offering a tint of nostalgia and the beginning of that most troubling of feelings heading into a World Cup: hope.
For the large majority of football fans heading to the game, however, it’ll come as only a small glimmer of good fortune, on a day they’ve been told that beer will be banned from all venues in Qatar, following a U-turn on the issue.
