Euro 2024: ’Three Lions’ tipped for UK Number One as England reach final

Football anthem ‘Three Lions’ is being tipped to reach Number One in the UK Charts as England have reached the Euro 2024 final.

• READ MORE: Why ‘Three Lions’ is still the ultimate football anthem

Betting company William Hill have said they expect three songs to vie for the top spot this July: David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds‘ ‘Three Lions’, Neil Diamond classic ‘Sweet Caroline’ and Fat Les’ ‘Vindaloo’.

The news follows England’s glorious victory last night (July 10), which saw Ollie Watkins score a last-minute goal to push the Three Lions into the final against Spain on Sunday (July 14).

Now, William Hill have said those three songs are collectively estimated with 3/1 odds to top the charts, adding: “Three Lions has been a UK No.1 single in three separate years, spanning across three decades, so you cannot write off another return to the top for The Lightning Seeds.

“England are in a final of a major tournament on foreign soil for the first time in history and the tunes will be blaring out this weekend,” they continued. “A win for Gareth Southgate’s men would surely spark a rush of sales and streams for some of England’s classic hits, so we go 3/1 for any of Three Lions, Vindaloo or even Sweet Caroline hitting top spot, while it’s odds-on at 10/11 one of those will enter the Top 10 this month.”

‘Three Lions’, which was originally released in 1996, previously broke records when it shot to Number One during the World Cup in 2018.

It was the first time in the Official Chart’s 66-year history that a song scored four spells at the top of the charts with the same artist line-up: the original 1996 version had two one-week stints in 1996, while the 1998 re-work had one three-week spell at the top.

The trio have since gone on to release a new version in 2022, when they unveiled a special festive edition of the song.

However, David Baddiel suggested the song could be “put to bed” after the England Women’s team’s Euro 2022 victory, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (via The Guardian): “The women have reset the clock.”

The lyric “30 years of hurt” in the chorus was a reflection on the fact that England hadn’t won a trophy since triumphing against West Germany in the 1966 FIFA World Cup when it was first released in 1996.

In other news, The Killers paused their London show for the last five minutes of the Euros semifinals, celebrating England’s win with a performance of ‘Mr Brightside’ straight after.

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