Major Tom is taking over Euro 2024 and uniting German fans

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https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/559329 ... euro-2024/

Peter Schilling never thought this would happen.

A song he released in 1983 has taken over the 2024 European Championship.

The infectious Major Tom has risen from stadiums and soared over the fan parks across host nation Germany. It is, with apologies to Gala’s Freed From Desire, the sound of the tournament.

More than 40 years after it was written, the story of an astronaut drifting into oblivion has harmonised a divided country, capturing the new era of optimism that surrounds its national football team.

“It’s crazy for me,” Schilling, now 68, tells The Athletic, “because I never expected the song to have this kind of power.

“Major Tom has been an anthem in sport before. There is an ice hockey team, Mannheim Eagles, who have been using it for years. When Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League in 1997, their fans sang it, too. But this wave of popularity is extraordinary; it’s fantastic for me.”

When it first came out, Major Tom (Vollig Losgelost) — to use its full title, the second bit translates as ‘Completely Detached’ — went to number one in Germany, Austria, Canada, Switzerland and even Bolivia. Its off-kilter rhythms are the essence of 1980s German cool and decades spent soundtracking disparate parts of popular culture — from movie Atomic Blonde to TV dramas Breaking Bad and Deutschland ’83 — have not diminished its infectiousness; it is still able to speak to a new generation. . . (more linked)

https://x.com/ManuelVeth/status/1803449 ... ro-2024%2F