"Three Lions" was the official song of the England football team for the 1996 European Championships, which were held in England. The music was written by The Lightning Seeds, with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner providing the lyrics. The song was a much bigger success than most football songs, capturing the Zeitgeist perfectly.

The lyrics spoke not of unbounded optimism for victory, but instead told of how, ever since 1966 and the one unequivocal success of the English football team, every tournament has ended in dashed hopes and the feeling that England will never again reach those heights ("Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming / Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming"). The song's intro included samples of pessimism from football commentators Alan Hansen ("I think it's bad news for the English game"), Trevor Brooking ("We're not creative enough; we're not positive enough"), and Jimmy Hill ("We'll go on getting bad results"). Despite the failures of the past, each tournament is greeted with fresh hopes that this might be the year they do it again, and the song's exuberant chorus proclaimed that "It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home".

The Britpop phenomenon was at its peak in 1996, and the Lightning Seeds were one of its leading lights, so their involvement gave the song very wide appeal. It stormed to number one in the singles chart, and as England progressed to the semi-finals, stadia around the country echoed to the sound of fans singing the song after English victories over Scotland, The Netherlands and Spain. It was so popular, in fact, that even other teams loved it. England faced Germany in the semi-finals, and Jürgen_Klinsmann said later that the Germans were singing the song themselves on the way to the stadium.

The hopes of a nation were once again dashed when England lost agonisingly in a penalty shoot-out - the song's lyrics rang true once again. It was subsequently re-recorded with different lyrics (under the title '"Three Lions '98") as an unofficial anthem for England's World Cup campaign in 1998 and landed the number one spot in the singles chart for a second time. It continues to receive regular radio airplay during any major football tournament.

External links

• Lyrics to both versions of the song