- See also Af banen (Danish film also known as We Are the Champions)
"We Are the Champions" is a power ballad written by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. One of their most famous and popular songs, it has since become an anthem for sporting victories and has been often used or referenced in popular culture (see below). The song reached #2 in the UK charts and #4 on the Hot 100 in the US in 1978.
Musically, it is based around Mercury's piano part, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon providing a drums and bass guitar backing. Brian May overdubbed some guitar sections, initially subtle, but building to a 'solo' played simultaneously with the last chorus. Mercury employed many jazz chords (major and minor 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th harmonies), and the choruses featured these voiced as 4 and 5-part vocal harmonies. The lead vocal is very demanding and strident, and in live performances, Mercury often deferred to let Taylor handle the highest parts of the melody.
The single featured "We Will Rock You" as a B-side, and followed the song on the album. The two songs were often paired to close Queen concerts, and are customarily played together on radio broadcasts (in album order). Keeping with tradition, it was also used to close the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with all the show's acts joining in behind the lead vocal of Liza Minnelli.
Queen about the song
| “ |
Certainly it's a relationship that could be, but I was thinking about football (soccer) when I wrote it. I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. It was aimed at the masses; I thought we'd see how they took it. It worked a treat. When we performed it at a private concert in London, the fans actually broke into a football (soccer) chant between numbers. Of course, I've given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football (soccer) chant. You know me. I certainly wasn't thinking about the press when I wrote it. I never think about the British music press these days. It was really meant to be offered the musicians the same as the fans. I suppose it could also be construed as my version of "I Did It My Way." We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it's still not easy.
-Freddie Mercury (1978)[1] |
” |
| “ |
I have to win people over, otherwise it's not a successful gig. It's my job to make sure people have a good time. That's part of my duty. It's all to do with feeling in control. That song "We Are the Champions" has been taken up by football fans because it's a winners' song. I can't believe that somebody hasn't written a new song to overtake it.
-Freddie Mercury (1985)[2] |
” |
In popular culture
- The song has been used together with "We Will Rock You" in The Mighty Ducks' trilogy.
- The song has been sampled by Dame Dash, Kanye West, Young Chris, Beanie Sigel, Cam'ron & Twista for their song, "Champions".
- The song appears in two episodes of The Simpsons - in "War of the Simpsons," Homer sings "I Am the Champions" after catching a legendary catfish, General Sherman. In "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken," Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney sing it after the Springfield Isotopes win the season.
- At the end of the AFL Grand Final in Australia, the song is played over the stadium as the Premiership team does a lap of honor.
- The song is used as the entrance music of professional wrestling tag team The Kings of Wrestling.
- The song was covered by Live 2 Love as a dance track, where it appeared in the Japanese version of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme.
- The song was used in the episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Hal shows his skating abilities.
- The song has been played to celebrate numerous sports championships. It was played at the finals of 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, after Italy won the cup.
- The song was used during the end cutscene for The Matrix: Path of Neo.
- The song was used at the end of the South Park episode "Stanley's Cup".
- The song marked the climax of the ending of the 1984 hit comedy Revenge of the Nerds.
- The song was televised locally right after Sri Lanka won the 1996 Cricket World Cup on March 17th, 1996.
- John Cusack dances to this song after he finds out that his ex-girlfriend has not had sex with his hated neighbor in the 2000 film High Fidelity.
- This song was the closing credits song for the movie 'A Knight's Tale' (2001.) It was also used in the final scene of Revenge of the Nerds and an operatic version of the song was used for the closing credits.
- Fernando Alonso sung the song after winning the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix, securing the Contructors' title for his team, Renault. The team later released an MP3 of the song being "played" by the engine they had used in that season, with the different notes played by changing engine speeds to adjust the pitch of the engine sound and exhaust note.
- The song was in the 2005 film, Kicking & Screaming.
- An Australian dart team - the Warilla Bowls All-Nighters adopted it as their 'team song' after winning back-to-back premierships in 2005.
- In the film Chicken Little (2005), Chicken Little sings the song after winning the big baseball game, but improvises the lyrics ("I Am The Champion" instead of "We Are the Champions"). Pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin also altered the song in this fashion in 2001.
- Liberal talk-radio personality Randi Rhodes used the song after the 2006 midterm elections to celebrate Democratic victories in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
- It was used as a musical extract for which to answer questions on in the 2006 Level One NCEA Music Exam
- It was used as the introductory music prior to Prince's halftime TV performance at Super Bowl XLI on February 4th, 2007 in Miami, Florida.
- On an episode of So You Think You Can Dance in 2007, Danny Tidwell performed a solo to Gavin DeGraw's version.
- A grunt sing a line of the chorus in Halo: Combat Evolved after you get killed by one.
Crazy Frog version
"We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" is a Crazy Frog single released on June 5 2006. It is a cover of the 1977 Queen song of the same name, released to coincide with the 2006 World Cup.
Single track listing
- CD single
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (Radio Edit) (2:57)
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (Club Mix) (5:49)
- Maxi single
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (Radio Edit) (2:57)
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (House Mix) (6:04)
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (Club Mix) (5:51)
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (Club Mix Dub) (5:17)
- "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (Video)
Chart performance
The single had its greatest success in France. It went straight to #1 on June 10, 2006, and stayed at this position for five weeks. Then, it kept on dropping in the chart. It remained for 9 weeks in the top 10, 17 weeks in the top 50 and 25 weeks in the chart. On August 30, 2006, it was certified Golf disc two months after its release by SNEP, the French certificator, and became the 15th best selling single in 2006 in that country.
| Chart[3] [4] [5] [6] |
Peak
position |
| Australian Singles Chart |
13 |
| Austrian Singles Chart |
4 |
| Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart |
10 |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart |
2 |
| Danish Singles Chart |
3 |
| Dutch Singles Chart |
100 |
| Finnish Singles Chart |
10 |
| French Singles Chart |
1 |
| German Singles Chart |
10 |
| Irish Singles Chart |
23 |
| Italy Singles Chart |
13 |
| New Zealander Singles Chart |
1 |
| Spain Singles Chart |
4 |
| Sweden Singles Chart |
11 |
| Swiss Singles Chart |
5 |
| UK Singles Chart |
11 |
| Annual chart (2006)[7] [8] |
Position |
| French Singles Chart |
15 |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart |
12 |
| Country |
Certification |
Sales/shipments |
| France |
Gold[9] |
205,908[10] |
Other cover versions and remixes
- Producer Rick Rubin remixed the song (along with "We Will Rock You") for Hollywood Records. (This mix also samples James Brown's "Funky Drummer".)
- Scatman John did a cover of this song along with Invisible Man.
- Era has also covered this song.
- Das Oath covered the song and has had it featured on more than one CD, including Dynamite with a Laserbeam: Queen as Heard Through the Meat Grinder of Three One G.
- J.B.O. released a spoof version, “Wir sind die Champignons” (We Are the Mushrooms), in 1997.
- Queen (May/Taylor) re-recorded this song for the soundtrack of the 2001 film A Knight's Tale with Robbie Williams on vocals. Williams also made a music video for the song.
- William Hung covered this song for his second album Hung for the Holidays (2004).
- Gavin DeGraw covered this song in Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen (2005).
- Green Day covered the song at the famous Live 8 in 2005. Also, they have often covered the song at their shows.
- The Bad Plus performs a jazz cover of this song in Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo (2005).
- Crazy Frog covered the song on the album, Crazy Frog Presents More Crazy Hits (2006).
- Angela Aki performs the song along with "We Will Rock You" in her live convert (2006).[11]
Thematic relation
The verse has some similarities to the Stephen Sondheim song, Send in the Clowns, both in melodic pattern and rhythm. The main difference is the key. Sondheim starts in major key, Mercury in the minor. The similarity may be intentional.
The song bears a passing similarity to both "My Way" and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".
The chorus can be heard entirely as a set of modulations of the common children's 'taunting song', 'na nana na na', a melody also associated with many other nursery rhymes, e.g. It's Raining, It's Pouring.
See also
External Link
References
- ^ Rosy Horide. "Queen Deserve Rock's Royal Crown? Freddie Mercury and Brian May Hawk their 'News of the World'". Circus, January 1978. Retrieved from Queenzone, June 15, 2006.
- ^ Nick Ferrari. "I Am The Champion. Why Fantastic Freddie Stole Live Aid Show". The Sun, July 19, 1985. Retrieved from queen.musichall.cz, June 15, 2006.
- ^ "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" Singles Chart in various countries Lescharts.com (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
- ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved March 1, 2008)
- ^ Irish Singles Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved March 1, 2008)
- ^ UK Singles Chart Everyhit.com (Retrieved March 1, 2008)
- ^ 2006 French Singles Chart Ifop.com (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
- ^ 2006 Belgian Singles Chart Skynet.be (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
- ^ 2006 certifications Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
- ^ 2006 French Sinles Chart Fanofmusic.free.fr (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
- ^ Angela Aki - We Are The Champions & We Will Rock You
es:We Are the Champions
fr:We Are the Champions ko:We Are the Champions hr:We are the Champions it:We Are the Champions he:We Are the Champions hu:We Are the Champions nl:We Are The Champions ja:伝説のチャンピオン no:We Are the Champions pl:We Are the Champions pt:We Are the Champions ru:We Are the Champions sk:We Are the Champions fi:We Are The Champions sv:We Are the Champions vi:We Are the Champions zh-yue:我哋係冠軍
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