I’m writing this up to bring you the nice piece of music BanglaYouth came up for the CWC2011.
“De Ghuma Ke” – the official theme song of CWC2011, that Shankar-Ehsan-Loy trio made – , what ever they say in ICC’s and many Indian websites, don’t seem to gather any significant fan attraction. Even Indians I met through various social networks believe that the song is bullshit. I can’t believe that a country with Bollywood inside it made such a poor theme song for a international sporting event.
To fill the gap between De Ghuma Ke and the cricket fever, many artists of these three south asian nations – I didn’t see any song from Pakistan published in YouTube, may be Pakistanis are not so excited about this world cup because Pakistan have been striped from the host status of CWC2011. – made many songs to cheer their nation’s cricket team.
Recently, I saw an exception to this. BanglaYouth’s “Play For the Game” is made to represent the CWC2011, not any single nation. Something I didn’t see so far from anyone else.
Rather than writing my idea about “Play for the Game” again, I’ll copy-n-paste few comments I made about this song in YouTube:
“This has all the qualities to be the official theme song.
This song has the energy very much in it than the De Ghuma Ke. This is sung in all the national languages of host countries including Pakistan and mainly in English. This allow cricket fans all over the world to enjoy the song marking the nationalities of host nations all the while. It is bad that Pakistan is stripped from everything of CWC2011 just because it is impossible to play matches there.”
So called Official Theme Song for CWC2011 – De Ghuma Ke – sucks bigtime. It don’t have a single English word in it, so how do we expect non-Indian cricket fans to understand the song? It is true you don’t have to understand a song to taste the music, but theme songs for sports events are not just musical creations for listenrs to just listen and enjoy. They have to understand what the song says and engage with it. What is more, many Indians too think De Ghuma Ke is shit. Do you think we’ll love The Official Theme Song for CWC2007 – “The Game of Love and Unity” – so much, if it were in some West Indies’ language than English?
The next foolish thing CWC2011’s organizing committee did is releasing separate versions of “De Ghuma Ke” in Sinhala and Bangla languages. They are meant to use in matches played in Sri Lanka and Bagladesh. Having three different theme songs for one sporting event is, I dunno, sucks, they could have all the three languages in one song.
Putting Pakistan out of everything related to CWC2011 is not a wise decission. They may not be able to host matches in Pakistan, but the organizing committe could have given Pakistan responsibilities of organization process. And could have released a Pakistan version of “De Ghuma Ke”, if they stick to that song.
“Play for the Game” has given us all the qualities we expect from a Official Theme Song of a sporting event. It is lot energized, sporyty, and enjoyable, most of all, people of all the countries will understand what the hell is the song about even after two-three years.
One thing to say, welldone BanglaYouth!
Update: 2011/02/18
Our Pakistani friend Syed Zeeshan Ahmed says there are two official songs made for Pakistan; “Jazba” and “Yeh Dunya hai dilwalon ki”. The later is a Pepsi ad, just like Mobitel made their advertisement “Enna Dinavanna” a official song for Sri Lanka! Just saying! LOL 😀
12 responses to ““Play for the Game” – and why it is waaay better than “De Ghuma Ke””
[It is true you don’t have to understand a song to taste the music]
What kind of music are you talking about, in "De Ghuma Ke"?
It reminds me an African tribal song.
LOL. Beware, African tribes may take legal actions against you for insulting them. 😀
OK I'll change it to "Even an African tribal song is way better than De Ghuma Ke" 😛
😛 That's way bettah! 😀
You are right bro. There's nothing to say about this song. It's bullshit. Lahiru's "Enna dinavanna" is better than this. http://www.gossip9.com/2011/02/blog-post_5799.htm…
I like "Enna Dinawanna" as a song. But I can't believe SLC calls is "official cheering song" or something like that. Selling everything sell-able to companies and tagging them "official" is sick! :/
Play For The Game is definitely better than any other CWC 2011 songs…
Yeah, they should've selected it than "De Ghuma Ke"!
I am listening to“Play for the Game” for the first time!Thanks to you!Toally Agree it is way better than “De Ghuma Ke”.
I am listening to “Play for the Game” For the first time! Thanks to you and it is way better than “De Ghuma Ke”.
De Ghuma Ke was a sucker! Any song would have been better than the misery created by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy!
I agree that "Play for the Game" sounds way better than "De Ghuma Ke" – and I like it that a couple of nationalities are represented in it. That alone makes it very suitable for something like a world cup!