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WORLD MUSIC FROM THE WORLD CUP 2026


Everybody knows that over here at Back to Mono, we're absolutely football mad (cant stand it) so when we were in the pub talking about footy as we always do (literally never do) we started talking about music from around the world and how it was so culturally unique. We started to look at our group in the Fifa World Cup, which as I'm sure you already know, is Group L (Googled that just now), and I was astounded to find that I really knew very little about the musical stylings of the countries we're currently intertwined with, through the worlds biggest international football tournament.

So, here we are to combine our two favourite things, sports and music, as we look at some of the biggest names from our Group L counterparts, and get to know what they are really all about...


Croatia


I've even been to Croatia and still can't say I know a single thing about its musical offerings to the world, so you can only imagine my excitement when my research led me to such names as...


Nipplepeople

This masked electronic duo are completely anonymous and even with the maddest name ever, they're actually very good and I found myself quite enjoying their dark synthy approach to things. The name may not be ideal, but once upon a time people probably thought Daft Punk sounded a bit shit for a band name.


Baby Lasagna

They may be named after an infant Italian dish, but this is Croatian through and through. With a name that had me rethinking whether Nipplepeople was actually quite normal, I was interested to find that he represented Croatia in the 2024 Eurovision song contest, which is even crazier when you realise it's actually full on death metal. Vocally it really shows a lot of diversity and range and honestly, came as a total shock


Severina

One of the nations favourite artists is a female solo artist called Severina, who is astoundingly 54 years old, but looks about 28. Whilst eye catching in appearance, musically its euro pop at its most refined. With catchy pop hooks and cheesy synths, strings, guitars and dance beats, accompanied by vocals in her native language, its a hell of a combination and she sounds like she'd also be right at home on Eurovision. She may well have been on it before. I didn't check to be fair


Ghana


So obviously when it comes to Ghana, I immediately get quite excited because this could unveil some really great, untapped reggae music, real roots music that I've never been introduced to before. Maybe even some brilliant hip-hop? Surely West Africa is bringing the finest world music, right?


Black Sherif

Not exactly what I was expecting but Black Sherif turns out to be one of the biggest names in Ghanaian rap music and has an insane amount of views on Youtube as well as streams on Spotify. I'm talking tens of millions! This really turned out to be a great insight into the culture.



Shatta Wale

Smooth R&B vibes and Ghanaian dance hall at its absolute sexiest, and big summer vibes. I actually really like Shatta Wale and under the right circumstances could totally imagine chilling to some of Ghana's finest. These are all bitesize tracks at generally under 3 minutes as well so do give this a try. You might just love it.


Gyakie

It's afro fusion, its R&B, it's African dance music led by a 26 year old girl, who's already 7 years into a successful music career. Like Shatta Wale, I found myself actually really enjoying this and I may accidentally be a massive fan of Ghanaian music. The first track I checked out was called 'No bad vibes' and to be fair, that does kind of sum this up.


Panama


Panama is like a little slither of land linking Central and South America. If they can muster up a World Cup level football team, surely they can produce absolute bangers. With a population of over 4 million and a shit ton of wealth, this could be an untapped resource for big tunes, and you've got to start with..


Sech

I'm not sure how to pronounce his name but this Spanish speaking Panamanian mega icon is an award winning urban music star and has even collaborated with Bad Bunny on single 'Ignorantes', which is made obvious by shouting "Bad Bunny" seven seconds into the track. Not bad at all though. Panama could be another winner.


El General

El General is putting down old school Reggaetón, and his Spotify picture looks like a 90's Premier League sticker book photo. He's also got the most impressive flat top in history which you could balance a jug of custard on without any stress. Musically its fun but quite dated, which makes sense due to his fame being mainly based in the 1990's. A favourite in his native land but it might not translate over here.. give it a try and find out for yourself


Los Rakas

More exotic Spanish dancehall from this bi-lingual duo who are amazingly, Grammy nominated and have even collaborated with Blondie. I did wonder what the name meant, but it turns out that they are both called Raka, so makes sense. These guys even played alongside Erykah Badu, Cypress Hill and Snoop Dogg at Smoke Out Festival in 2010, so they're highly acclaimed. They've even got a track called 'No Diddy' which, let's face it.. we all agree with that don't we?


So there you have it! We're in fine, if not interesting company over here in Group L and we've all learned a hell of a lot about the music of our world cup compatriots. Let's not forget, England produced Simply Red, Black Lace and Gary Glitter, so when it comes to music we can't exactly judge and considering we haven't won a World Cup in 60 years, it's anybody's game. So good luck to all of my new friends in Group L, and remember, it's not about winning... because it's football, and nobody really cares.


Article by Stuart Green


 
 
 

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