FIFA World Cup championship theme songs[1] are songs adopted officially to be used as warm-ups to the event, to accompany the championships during the event and as a souvenir reminder of the events as well as for advertising campaigns leading for the World Cup, giving the singers exceptional universal world coverage and notoriety.
The songs chosen are usually multilingual using English, the language of the official language of the organising country as well as other world languages, most notably Spanish. The official versions also results in cover versions in many other languages by the original artist or by local artists.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in 2007. It was the second time that Brazil staged the competition, the first being in 1950, and the fifth time that it was held in South America.
Thirty-one national teams advanced through qualification competitions to join the host nation in the final tournament (with Bosnia and Herzegovina as only debutant). A total of 64 matches were played in 12 venues located in as many host cities across Brazil. For the first time at a World Cup finals, match officials used goal-line technology, as well as vanishing foam for free kicks.[6] FIFA Fan Fests in each host city gathered a total of 5 million people, and the country received 1 million visitors from 202 countries.[7]
Every World Cup-winning team since the first tournament in 1930 – Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay – qualified for this tournament. Spain, the title holders, were eliminated at the group stage, along with England and Italy. Uruguay were eliminated in the round of 16, and France exited in the quarter-finals. Host nation Brazil, who had won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, lost to Germany 7–1 in the semi-finals and eventually finished in fourth place.
In the final, Germany defeated Argentina 1–0 to win the tournament and secure the country's fourth world title, the first after the German reunification in 1990, when as West Germany they also beat Argentina in the World Cup final. Germany became the first European team to win a World Cup staged in the Americas,[8] and this result marked the first time that nations from the same continent won three consecutive tournaments (following Italy in 2006 and Spain in 2010).[9][10]