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We Are the Champions

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This article is about the song. For the Danish film, see Af banen. For the BBC series, see We Are the Champions (TV series).
"We Are the Champions"
Song
B-side"We Will Rock You"

"We Are the Champions" is a power ballad written by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. One of their most famous and popular songs, it has since become an anthem for sporting victories and has been often used or referenced in popular culture (see below). The song has been covered by many artists.

Original Queen version

Music

Musically, it is based around Mercury's piano part, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon providing a drums and bass guitar backing. Brian May overdubbed some guitar sections, initially subtle, but building to a 'solo' played simultaneously with the last chorus. Mercury employed many jazz chords (major and minor 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th harmonies), and the choruses featured these voiced as 4 and 5-part vocal harmonies. The lead vocal is very demanding and strident (highest point is a C5), and in live performances, Mercury often deferred to let Taylor handle the highest parts of the melody. An exception to this was Mercury's performance of the song at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

The single featured "We Will Rock You" as a B-side, and preceded the song on the album. The two songs were often played consecutively at the close of Queen concerts, and are customarily played together on radio broadcasts (in album order). Keeping with tradition, it was also used to close the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with all the show's acts joining in behind the lead vocal of Liza Minnelli.

Queen about the song

Below is a quote on how Freddie Mercury viewed the song, how he came up with the idea for it, and how the public viewed it after its release.

Certainly it's a relationship that could be, but I was thinking about football [soccer] when I wrote it. I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. It was aimed at the masses; I thought we'd see how they took it. It worked a treat. When we performed it at a private concert in London, the fans actually broke into a football chant between numbers. Of course, I've given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. You know me. I certainly wasn't thinking about the press when I wrote it. I never think about the British music press these days. It was really meant to be offered the musicians the same as the fans. I suppose it could also be construed as my version of "I Did It My Way." We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it's still not easy.
-Freddie Mercury (1978)[1]

The next few lines are once again a quote by Freddie on how society received the song.

I have to win people over, otherwise it's not a successful gig. It's my job to make sure people have a good time. That's part of my duty. It's all to do with feeling in control. That song "We Are the Champions" has been taken up by football fans because it's a winners' song. I can't believe that somebody hasn't written a new song to overtake it.
-Freddie Mercury (1985)[2]

Chart performances

In 1977-1978, "We Are the Champions" was released as a single for the time in many countries, including U.S. where it reached number 4 on the Billboard Pop Singles, UK, Ireland and Norway where it reached the top ten, and Germany, Austria and Sweden where it was a top 15 hit.

In 1992, 1993 and 1998, the single was re-released in France, totalling 45 weeks on the chart and peaking respectively at #19, #14 and #10. The song has thus its greatest success during the 1998 World Cup because the French team was the winner arnas.

Personnel

  • Freddie Mercury: lead vocal, piano, backing vocals
  • Brian May: electric guitar, backing vocals
  • John Deacon: bass guitar
  • Roger Taylor: drums, backing vocals

Track listings

Certifications

Country Certification Date Sales certified Physical sales
France Gold[3] 1978 500,000 624,000+[4]
Silver[5] September 30, 1998 125,000 165,000+[4]
U.S.[6] Platinum April 25, 1978 2,000,000

Charts

Crazy Frog cover

"We Are the Champions"
Song

"We Are the Champions" was also covered by Crazy Frog under the title "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)". It was released as a single on June 5, 2006. A cover of the 1977 Queen song of the same name, it was released to coincide with the 2006 World Cup, but Queen's vocals are featured in the song.

Track listings

CD single
  1. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (radio edit) — 2:57
  2. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (club mix) — 5:49
Maxi single
  1. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (radio edit) — 2:57
  2. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (house mix) — 6:04
  3. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (club mix) — 5:51
  4. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (club mix dub) — 5:17
  5. "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)" (video)

Chart performances

The single had its greatest success in France. It went straight to #1 on June 10, 2006, and stayed at this position for five weeks. Then, it kept on dropping in the chart. It remained for 9 weeks in the top 10, 17 weeks in the top 50 and 25 weeks in the chart. On August 30, 2006, it was certified Gold disc two months after its release by SNEP, the French certificator, and became the 15th best selling single in 2006 in that country.

Certifications and sales

Country Certification Date Sales certified Physical sales
Belgium[13] Gold September 9, 2006 20,000
France[14] Gold August 30, 2006 200,000 205,908[15]

Charts

Preceded by French SNEP number-one single
June 4, 2006 - July 1, 2006 (5 weeks) 		Succeeded by

Other cover versions and samplings

The song was covered by many artists, including Scatman John on Invisible Man, Era, Das Oath, La Unión (as "Somos Campeones" in Spanish on the 1996 album Tributo A Queen: Los Grandes Del Rock En Español), Queen (May/Taylor) for the soundtrack of the 2001 film A Knight's Tale with Robbie Williams on vocals, William Hung for his 2004 album Hung for the Holidays, Gavin DeGraw the 2005 album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen, Jean-Sébastien Lavoie, a contestant of French TV show Nouvelle Star, in 2003 (#38 in France and #53 in Switzerland),[22] Florent Pagny as duet with David Hallyday on his 2001 album 2.

The song was performed live by Green Day at Live 8 in 2005, The Bad Plus (jazz cover in Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo, 2005), Japanese singer-songwriter Angela Aki in her 2006 concert, The Jonas Brothers, Rooney, and the entire tour crew at their final concert for the When You Look Me In The Eyes tour, Jonathan Coulton, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra[23] and Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, in the Season 8 finale of American Idol, on 20 May 20 2009.

The song was also sampled or parodied by producer Rick Rubin remixed the song for Hollywood Records, by Dame Dash, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Young Chris, Beanie Sigel, Cam'ron & Twista for their song, "Champions", by J.B.O. for "Wir sind die Champignons" (We Are the Mushrooms), in 1997.

The song has been regularly played to celebrate numerous sports championships.

The song can be heard in many music video games (Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, Pro Evolution Soccer 2 and Halo: Combat Evolved after you get killed by one), films (including High Fidelity, What Happens in Vegas, A Knight's Tale, Kicking & Screaming, Chicken Little, Revenge of the Nerds), and TV series (including South Park: Undeniable, The Mighty Ducks trilogy, three episodes of The Simpsons (in "War of the Simpsons", "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" and "She Used To Be My Girl"), Season 5 of The Sopranos, Drawn Together episodes "Spanky's Cup", "The Chronicles of Leap", "Ice Skating", "Toot Goes Bollywood", and "Merry Christmas", Malcolm in the Middle where Hal shows his skating abilities, The Matrix: Path of Neo, South Park episode "Stanley's Cup", So You Think You Can Dance in 2007, The Big Bang Theory, Angel, WarioWare, Inc. and Robot Chicken episode called "Uniionizing Our Labor").

The song was also used as a musical extract for which to answer questions on in the 2006 Level One NCEA Music Exam, and as the introductory music prior to Prince's halftime TV performance at Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007 in Miami, Florida.

See also

References

  1. ^ Rosy Horide. "Queen Deserve Rock's Royal Crown? Freddie Mercury and Brian May Hawk their 'News of the World'". Circus, January 1978. Retrieved from Queenzone, June 15, 2006.
  2. ^ Nick Ferrari. "I Am The Champion. Why Fantastic Freddie Stole Live Aid Show". The Sun, July 19, 1985. Retrieved from queen.musichall.cz, June 15, 2006.
  3. ^ French certifications Chartsinfrance.net (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  4. ^ a b Queen's certifications and sales in France See: "Les Ventes" => "Toutes les certifications depuis 1973" => "QUEEN" Infodisc.fr (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  5. ^ French certifications Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  6. ^ U.S. certifications riaa.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  7. ^ a b Billboard allmusic.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "We Are the Champions", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  9. ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  10. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  11. ^ 1978 Austrian Singles Chart Austriancharts.at (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  12. ^ 1998 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  13. ^ Belgian certifications Ultratop.be (Retrieved August 11, 2008)
  14. ^ French certifications Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
  15. ^ 2006 French Singles Chart Fanofmusic.free.fr (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
  17. ^ a b c "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)", in various singles charts Acharts.us (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  18. ^ 2006 Austrian Singles Chart Austriancharts.at (Retrieved May 17, 2008)
  19. ^ 2006 Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  20. ^ 2006 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  21. ^ 2006 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved December 16, 2007)
  22. ^ "We Are the Champions" by Jean-Sébastien Lavoie, French and Swiss singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved July 29, 2008)
  23. ^ [1]
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