This time four years ago, I found myself sporting my first canary yellow Brazilian football jersey. Dining with my boyfriend and his mum, stuffing our faces on all you can eat meat BBQ. We were cowering under the screen of the 2014 World Cup Brazil.
⚽️ ⚽️ ⚽️ Skip to the chants here! ⚽️ ⚽️ ⚽️
She’s swearing at the Brazilian football team (click link for post on Neymar, Pals & Tattoos), he’s sipping anxiously on a vodka disguised as water and I’m trying hard to discern what meat keeps landing on my plate and if it’s appropriate for my pampered stomach.
Yet this June we find ourselves under British skies for the World Cup and in the midst of much less enthusiasm.
My Brazilian tenatively asks if we can watch a match in the pub with the football “hooligans”.
We try.
Though, we end up in a suburban pub where the subtitles are sprawled on the screen. There’s not a soul glancing at the T.V. as England plays and it was only after the 4th England goal that heads start to turn.
In Brazil it would be borderline insanity not to broadcast the match and cause riots if it were on mute. So since the invention of Football, that was us Brits, and modern-day fanaticism, the Brazilians have the shoulder up. The Brits have downspiralled into realistic skepticism and the Brazilians have become obsessive optimists.
I want to say Brazilians love football. However, I think it would be more accurate to say it is a national fetish.
With that in mind, I’m sure many are curious about what is passionately dancing from the Brazilian fans’ lips. Suffice to say Portuguese is poetic, rhythmic, like samba and on top of that the chants are far from hollow, barbaric words…
1. The New World Cup Chant
For Russia, the Brazilian fans have imported a chant that dictates their legacy throughout previous World Cups.
Running through the impressive 5 World Champions and the stars that stole the show.
Here’s the Portuguese version:
“Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole
Eeeeeeee…
Em cinco oito foi Pelé
Em meia dois foi o Mané
Em sete zero esquadrão
Primeiro a ser tricampeão
Click to read more…
Ôôôôôôô…….
Noventa e quatro Romariô
Dois mil e dois fenômeno
Primeiro tetracampeão
Único penta é o Brasilzão”
Now in English:
In ’58 it was Pelé,
In ’62 it was Mané,
In ’70 the squad, (nickname for the winning team in World Cup in Mexico)
First to be three times champion,
Ooooooo …..
’94 Romariô,
2002 phenomenon, (referring to Ronaldinho)
First four times champion,
Only 5 times is the Great Brazilians
2. Eu sou brasileiro com muito orgulho com muito amor
Eu sou brasileiro, com muito orgulho, com muito amor
I am Brazilian, with lots of pride and lots of love
(I know, it sounds like a sickly love ballad in English, but it’s much more heart wrenching in Portuguese).
3. “Guess Whose Back” Chant
Every time Brazil scores or the ball edges close to the net, the excitement is too much. They swing right back into this ditty, which basically reminds us they are still the all round World Champion record holders.
In Portuguese:
Ôôôôôôôôô…
O Campeão voltou,
O Campeão voltou,
O Campeão voltou…
(X 3)
Now in English:
Ooooooo
The champion came back,
The champion came back,
The champion came back…
4. The Longest Anthem Ever
The Brazilian Anthem is a long one. And every kid in the country knows the words.
Read here for the ins and outs of its existence, but in brief: it began without lyrics, Brazil held a pop idol style competition to bestow lyrics and is now a truly drawn out affair.
In Portuguese:
Ouviram do Ipiranga as margens plácidas
De um povo heroico o brado retumbante,
E o sol da Liberdade, em raios fúlgidos,
Brilhou no céu da Pátria nesse instante.
Se o penhor dessa igualdade
Conseguimos conquistar com braço forte,
Em teu seio, ó Liberdade,
Desafia o nosso peito a própria morte!
Ó Pátria amada,
Idolatrada,
Salve! Salve!
Brasil, um sonho intenso, um raio vívido,
De amor e de esperança à terra desce,
Se em teu formoso céu, risonho e límpido,
A imagem do Cruzeiro resplandece.
Gigante pela própria natureza,
És belo, és forte, impávido colosso,
E o teu futuro espelha essa grandeza.
Terra adorada
Entre outras mil
És tu, Brasil,
Ó Pátria amada!
Dos filhos deste solo
És mãe gentil,
Pátria amada,
Brasil!
Now in English:
The placid shores of the Ipiranga heard
The resounding shout of a heroic folk
And the sun of Liberty in shining beams
Shone in the homeland’s sky at that instant.
If the pledge of this equality
We managed to conquer with strong arm,
In thy bosom, O Freedom,
Our chest defies death itself!
O beloved,
Idolized homeland,
Hail, hail!
Brazil, an intense dream, a vivid ray
Of love and hope descends to earth
If in thy beautiful, smiling and limpid sky
The image of the (Southern) Cross blazes.
Giant by thine own nature,
Thou art beautiful, strong, a fearless colossus,
And thy future mirrors that greatness.
Adored Land
Amongst thousand others
Art thou, Brazil,
O beloved homeland!
Of the sons of this ground
Thou art kind mother,
Beloved homeland,
Brazil!
Translation taken from Wikipedia.
Vamos Brasil!
Let’s Go Brazil!
Add to your Pinterest!
1 Comment. Leave new
This is an absolutely fantastic article, though I would like to make just one minor (perhaps major, depending on how deep your love goes for the Seleção )….
“O Fenômeno”, aka the Phenomenon, is not Ronaldinho (Gaucho), but rather, the legend himself, the original Ronaldo.