Entertainment
Baddiel and Skinner: Three Lions about ‘fact that England mainly lose but always having hope’ after historic Euro 2020 win
David Baddiel has said England’s Euro 2020 win over Germany felt like the conclusion of a ‘huge narrative arc’ for his anthem Three Lions, adding the tune was about ‘loss’ but ‘hope over experience’ as well as a bit of ‘magical thinking’.
We like his take.
The comedian recorded the iconic track Three Lions with Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds for the Euro 1996 tournament, where England was knocked out in the semi-finals by Germany.
In a proper ‘what goes around, comes around’ moment, the tune was sung by fans at Wembley as Gareth Southgate’s team secured victory over their old rivals with second-half goals from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane on Tuesday evening.
To Baddiel, Sterling’s second-half goal had left him – and the rest of the country, we can only imagine – ‘blind with joy’.
Writing in the Evening Standard, Baddiel explained how he and Skinner had wanted to write a song about the passion of fans and England’s tendency to lose important games.
He said: ‘Three Lions is a song about loss: about the fact that England mainly lose. We as fans — as English people — invest an enormous amount in the idea of England, and then, as experience suggests, England let you down.
‘We know this and yet we still — as the 98 version put it — believe. Football fandom is this, it’s magical thinking, it’s hope over experience.’
Baddiel, who was in the crowd with Skinner, also told Today on BBC Radio 4: ‘It feels like it is a huge narrative arc for me and Frank Skinner and for our song because of course we were there in 1996 when Germany destroyed the dream of that particular summer.
Oh they think it’s coming home (Picture: Reuters)
‘And we have actually been together at other England and Germany games that England have crashed out of major tournaments at.
‘So it just felt unbelievable to think that we might win this one. At the start of the game I was tense for quite a long time, until Jack Grealish came on and changed the game.’
He said: ‘It is one of those moments where – I was there with my son as well as Frank and Frank’s son – and then everyone around us are just blind with joy for a little while.
‘You just can’t think about anything apart from the euphoria you are feeling in that moment.’
Baddiel said the win may offer former player Southgate redemption, after he missed a pivotal penalty against Germany during the Euro 96 match.
He said: ‘Probably somewhere deep in Gareth Southgate’s subconscious it does.
More: Euro 2020
‘He did do an interview the other day where he said: “I’m not interested in talking about the past and some of the players weren’t even born when that match happened.”
‘And it didn’t go to penalties. It being the German side, I think it would have been almost impossible for certainly everyone in the crowd who remembers it not to think: “Oh no, is it going to be that thing? Is it going to be the Southgate moment?”‘
Luckily that wasn’t the case.
MORE : David Baddiel and Frank Skinner reunite for England v Germany game at Wembley: ‘It’s been a while’
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