World Cup 2026: The song everybody is singing but leaves the artiste in chains

By Nehru Odeh

There is something deeply intriguing about “Freed From Desire”, the smash hit by Italian singer-songwriter Gala Rizzatto, aka Gala. Released in 1996, it has broken records not just in sports stadia and on football pitches in the ongoing 2026 World Cup, but also in bars, restaurants, dance halls, music circuits, as well as in the hearts and minds of fans across the globe.

The melody floats into the warm summer air like a hymn. It spills from stadiums into streets. It echoes through pubs in London, cafés in Lagos, bars in Buenos Aires, and living rooms in Tokyo. It follows thunderous headers, breathtaking saves, and last-minute winners. It accompanies ecstasy and heartbreak, triumph and despair. It has become as much a part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup as football itself.

Everywhere you go, it’s entrancing chorus na na na na na na na na na na reverberates, breaking walls and barriers – gender, racial, class, and age – and uniting everyone in a frenzy in whose company prison walls are broken and everyone finds freedom, release, and loses themselves, as Lionel Richie sings in his 1983 hit, in wild romance.

Fans sing it, music lovers mime it, and dance to its rhythm. And not only has it sold millions, it has also climbed charts across continents and become one of the defining songs of not just the Eurodance era but also the ongoing 2026 World Cup.

And not only that, on its release in 1996, nightclubs embraced it, football terraces adopted it, Olympic crowds sang it, political protesters borrowed it, students marched to it, champions celebrated with it. Just as the title connotes, it inspired a certain of freedom not just from desire but from everything.

Yet the song is a paradox. Its genius lies in its deceptive simplicity, in its…