This song from the ’90s has become the anthem for the FIFA World Cup

“It’s a song about energy and resilience”: Singer Gala is “happy” to see her 1996 song “Freedom from Desire” played by the French team (and many others) at the World Cup in Qatar.

On social media, we watched Kylian Mbappe and his band sing the chorus in the dressing room after the Round of 16 victory over Poland and then against England in the quarter-finals.

The circuit was also chosen by the teams of Switzerland, Poland and England for entering the stadium during the competition.

It was endorsed by the Northern Ireland football team at Euro 2016, by supporters of English club Wigan, AC Milan. It also served as the soundtrack for English boxer Tyson Fury, among others.

“It is not only the song of the winners, it is also the song of the strangers, I even saw the supporters of Paquito Navarro, who had just lost in padel (racquet sport),” the singer recalls. “And sung at the same time by supporters of two Australian rugby teams who are supposed to hate each other.”

“I am glad that the French players sing it, because France has always received me so well, I was a diamond here and I am there now, but this song has many other lives, and it has united so many different people that makes me happy.”

“Freedom from Desire” is like a feminist anthem.

“Everyone says that, but at first it’s not a feminist,” said AFP Gala, a singer born in Italy who lived in the United States and now spends time in Paris.

It is an unknown story. At the age of 13, a doctor in Italy diagnosed her with a back problem and assured her that she would never be able to be a dancer, her life’s dream. But later in the United States, while she was studying the picture, another doctor told her that nothing could stop her from dancing.

Endorsed by the text, the liberation chant, it says “the LGBTQIA+ community or even environmental advocates, because the race for consumption leads the planet to its loss.”