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Singing of the World Cup, Off-Key and Off-Kilter

Dutch soccer fans sing as they watch their team play the Ivory Coast at an outdoor viewing area in Berlin.
Dutch soccer fans sing as they watch their team play the Ivory Coast at an outdoor viewing area in Berlin.

The World Cup finals feature soccer that is elegant, powerful and artistic. But the quadrennial tourney holds no guarantees for providing music that matches the magic conducted on the pitch.

In fact, some of it could only be filed under "A" for awful. Each unforgettable game seems to bring tunes that listeners may long to forget. The songs range from Ukraine's rewrite of "We Will Rock You" to a banjo-playing Brit taking jabs at the Germans, and Iran's earnest anthem.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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