Waka Waka (This is Africa), is a song performed by the Colombian singer Shakira, with the collaboration of the South African group Freshlyground.
It was chosen by FIFA as the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup held that year in South Africa. All the profits generated by the song went to the charity campaign of the FIFA 20 Centers for 2010.
Waka Waka combines Afro-Colombian rhythms and instrumentation with society, Trinidad and Tobago musical genre derived from calypso.
The chorus was based on a song from Cameroon called "Zangalewa" that made popular the Golden Sounds group formed by ex-military of that country. The group maintained that they did not compose, but adopted a popular song spontaneously on the part of African scouts when they marched.
The song was number 1 in 50 countries.
Colombia, Guatemala, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Chile, Mexico, Turkey, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark and Finland, fact that what had matched other songs of other world-class singers such as Madonna, Michael Jackson or Britney Spears with "Hung Up", "Thriller" and "... Baby One More Time", respectively.
In addition, he was the official official of World Football.
The song was released on April 28, 2010, and was available for digital download from May 11. The single had sold more than 9.5 million copies worldwide, and became the most successful of the digital era, since all sales were in that format. It was included in the album Listen Up! The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Album, the official record of the World Cup. All the profits derived from the sale of the album would go to the charity campaign of the FIFA 20 Centers for 2010, whose goal was to achieve a positive social change through football, to build twenty centers «Football for Hope» along all of Africa to solve the problems of health and education on the continent.
Another campaign focused on education, co-founded by Queen Rania of Jordan and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, was 1GOAL Education for All. Shakira acted as an ambassador to add her voice to this initiative of the World Cup. Supported by some of the biggest names in the global soccer community and the FIFA board, the singer ensured with this campaign that the world leaders donated the funds necessary for some seventy-two million children to have access to education. Worldwide.
On April 23, auditions were held in Los Angeles to choose the dancers and models for the official video of the song. The video was shot in Compton, United States, an area populated mostly by African-Americans and Latinos.
On May 2, the first image was released. In the videoclip appeared the players Lionel Messi, Dani Alves, Rafael Márquez Álvarez, Gerard Piqué and Carlos Kameni.
Shakira performed live the English version of the song in Soweto, (Johannesburg) on June 10, 2010, for the opening concert of the 2010 World Cup. It was watched live by approximately 700 million viewers from all over the world. world, when it had already been thought that the song would be performed only in the final of that Cup on July 11, 2010. Additionally, the song was also performed again at the close of the World Cup. Shakira was the only artist who performed at both ceremonies.
Origin
Zangalewa is a Cameroonian song.1 It receives the name of the first words of the song: Zamina mine Zangalewa.
The refrain has been used by different artists as part of their songs, among which: Golden Sounds, Las chicas del Can and Shakira stand out.
It was part of the repertoire of the soldiers, but also of various young groups such as scouts, all over Africa. It is a song of light rhythm, and is frequently used as a song for marches.
It was popularized in 1986 by the Cameroonian band Golden Sounds, which gave it great success and changed its name to Zangalewa.
It is also said that the meaning "Waka-waka" was a greeting made by soldiers from Cameroon during the Second World War.
This song is performed in the Fang language, corresponding to certain areas of Gabon, southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and a little east of Central Africa. Being so popular leads to many times the song is sung without knowing the meaning.
Za engalomwa means in Fang language "Who sent you?" This is the question of a Cameroonian soldier to another of foreign origin, According to Guy Dooh, of the Zangaléwa group. The term "zangalewa" can also come from an expression in Ewondo: za anga loé wa ?, which would be "who called you?" Cameroon is a multi-ethnic and plurilingual country, and not all soldiers knew how to speak Ewondo, so it is very likely that over time the term za anga loé wa became the Zangalewa that we know today.
In 2010 Shakira repeats it in the chorus with the title Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) with the South African group Freshlyground becoming the official song of the World Cup South Africa 2010.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa was the 19th edition of the Football World Cup. The competition was held in South Africa, between June 11 and July 11 of that year, the first time the tournament was held in Africa and the fifth time it was held in the Southern Hemisphere.
They registered to participate in the ranking process 204 of the 208 national associations affiliated to FIFA, held between mid-2007 and the end of 2009, in order to determine the 31 participating teams in the final phase of the tournament (which would join the host South Africa).
The championship was composed of two phases: in the first, eight groups of four teams were formed each, advancing to the next round the two best of each group. The sixteen qualifiers then met in elimination matches, until they reached the two teams that played the final at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.
Before the tournament, South Africa made a millionaire investment to be able to receive one of the most important sporting events on the planet. About 2 million tickets were put on sale to attend the 64 games, to be played in 10 stadiums located throughout the country, of which half were new. In preparation for the event, the host country previously organized the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in the cities of Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Rustenburg.
After the consecration of Spain to the Netherlands, this World Cup was the first played outside Europe in which a team from that continent was proclaimed champion, and it was the first time since 1998 that he won a team without previous world cups in his winners, as well as the first time since 1978 when two teams without world cups met in the finals. As world champions, Spain participated in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.
