Something fun to wake up to: "Zidane il a frappé…"

by Diane Duane

They’re singing it in the streets of Paris…and nearly everywhere else in France, apparently.

A song parodying soccer star Zinedine Zidane’s head butt in the World Cup final has soared to the top of the music charts in France.

“Coup de Boule” (“Head-Butt”) pokes fun at Zidane for ramming his head into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi during the match July 9. Zidane was thrown out of the game, and Italy won on penalty kicks.

Lyrics warn listeners to “Watch out: it’s the head butt dance,” while a chorus of “Zidane, he hit him” plays over a repetitive African tune. “We lost the World Cup but we still laughed a lot,” the lyrics say.

Two French producers from La Plage records composed the song in 30 minutes after watching Zidane’s pique on television. Nine days later, the record had sold 60,000 copies in France, according to a spokesman for Warner Music, which is working on an English-language version. Spanish and Italian versions of the song already exist.

And an amusing detail: the song got its start on the Net. The writers (who work writing advertising music) wrote it as “therapy” to get over the disappointment of France’s lost. they emailed it to fifty of their friends…and after that, it got loose on the Web. Now music publishers are lined up at these guys’ door to buy the rights…

Apparently the best version of the music video has been taken down because the footage of Zidane’s header was used without permission. But it can still be found here and there: look quick before it vanishes. A version without the action (not as interesting or funny…) is here.

Catchy tune, anyway. Those of you who have trouble with “earworms” might want to avoid it. BTW, a translation is here, at Etienne Marcel’s weblog. Another translation of the chorus has it as “Zidane hit ‘im, Zidane the hit man!”

(…and the writer boom-chikka-booms off to get her tea… Damn, that thing does get into your head. But then the composers are ad music writers…)

[tags]Coup de Boule, Zinedine Zidane, France, World Cup[/tags]

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1 comment

IanRacey August 5, 2006 - 1:36 pm

My sister was taking a nap during the second half of the final and has been trying fruitlessly to see that headbutt for the past month. Now she can!

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