France dances to the head butt

It was impossible to escape Zinedine Zidane when I left Paris a couple of weeks ago.  Then France's favourite footballer followed me on holiday in the form of an unlikely hit song that is monopolising the air waves, cafes and bars. It is called Coup de Boule, or Head Butt and it celebrates Zizou's legendary assault on Marco Materazzi of Italy in the Berlin World Cup final.  Zidane a frappé, la Coupe, on l'a ratée". (Zidane struck, we blew the cup), goes one line. 
 
Back in Paris, the zouk dance song is the talk of the music industry because it came from nowhere ovenight to top the singles chart. "We are in the process of making a miracle,"  Thierry Cassagne, President of Warner Music France, told the media. Warner bought the song from its unknown authors Franck Lascombes, Sebastien and Emmanuel Lipszyc three days after they wrote it.

The Lipszyc brothers, who run a firm called La Plage that makes jingles and sound-effects, were mourning the Berlin disaster the day after the match. The internet was buzzing with songs and video gags about "Zizou's" stunt. "We were depressed and couldn't work. People were sending jokes around the internet," said Sebastien Lipszyc, 31, who is a big Zizou fan. "Franck came up with the idea of joining in all this reaction. Our jokes became lyrics and it was finished in half an hour. We used instrumentals that we had in stock."  The La Plage ditty was hardly very original since it was a parody of another Zizou song by a TV comedian that came out earlier in the world cup.

The trio sent their track to 50 friends over the internet and three hours later they heard it being played on Skyrock, one of the biggest radio networks. The next day they were besieged by mobile telephone firms and by Wednesday Warner had out-bid two other big recording companies to market the song. On the Saturday, the video was filmed in the Charlety stadium -- featuring a referee brandishing a red card at an unseen player. Some 150,000 singles have been sold since it came out last week and over 100,000 have been downloaded. 

Only two weeks from its inception, Coup de Boule has earned the coveted status of tube de l'été or  summer hit, the danceable, catchy tune that monopolises the air in France's holiday months.  The record in the genre was earned by the Lambada, with 1.5 million singles, in 1989. The difference with Head-butt is that the summer hits are usually the product of  heavy marketing. Now the record companies are reacting fast to the internet, as they did with Britain's Arctic Monkeys.  Head Butt is being sold in 20 countries, including Japan.

The explosion of Zidane parodies and songs on the Internet -- which include a video montage of him butting President Chirac -- testify to the continuing adoration for the Marseille-born footballer who retired from the sport after the Berlin final.  His sponsors -- who pay him some eight million euros a year -- did not flinch with the pitch violence that cost him a symbolic three-match suspension and community service order. Several have promised him years more income. Addidas has engaged him until 2017 and opened a new internet site in his honour www.mercizidane.fr. Danone, the food firm which has an 11-year contract with Zidane for campaigns involving children, said today that he might even serve on its board. Franck Riboud, the Danone chief executive, told The Financial Times that he had suggested to Zidane that he could be a non-executive director.

According to the marketing experts, rather than disgracing him,  Zidane's assault may have added to his commercial power because it has conferred on him a rebel image. Sebastien Lipszyc said that he and his brother were dazed by the sudden success that the footballer's exploit had brought their firm, "but most of all we hope it has made Zidane laugh".

Comments

[Edward Johns]

OK then, so I'm a fuddy-duddy stuffed shirt.
The passionate love that I used to hold for football " the beautiful game" was finished off by this year's World Cup, as a result of the rampant cheating, diving, posturing and similar "big girl's blouse" activities of the players chosen to represent their countries.
That was bad enough, now it seems as though breaking the rules coupled with total loss of self-control is to be praised and rewarded. In other words, cheating is good. Come back estate agents, all is forgiven--todays best shysters are footballers.

[Sandrine]

Merci Zizou !! ;o)

[Mark Burton]

The song is a spoof. It's a copy, a fake zouk (ie French caribbean style) version of the original version 'Zidane, il va marquer' or 'Zidane, he's going to score' sung by Cauet. The funny alternative version has just caught the public imagination (thanks to some clever marketing by Warner). Besides, it's better than the, the quasi-official "tube de l'été" by a busker.

[Michel R, Aix-en-Provence]

Even though I usually deplore the commercial assaults we have to endure on the radio during the summer, I have to admit this initiative is rather appealing.

Not the tune, of course, it's unbearable. But the fact that, for once, the French are not lamenting for their failures, but found a slick way to change a disappointing defeat into a stunning success.

[Frank Schnittger]

Fair dues, Charles, first day back at work and you're already on the home page of Timesonline. Hope the family don't get too upset at you not being able to stop the writing itch even when on holidays with them.

Personally I disagree slightly with Edward Johns. Zizou's act was monumentally stupid in terms of ruining France's chance of winning the game. But it was not cheating in the sense that I understand the term. Materazzi cheated when he exagerated the effect of the head butt and feigned injury afterwards. The World Cup was characterised by all sorts of cheating by players diving or feigning injury in an effort to influence the referee and gain an unfair advantage for their team.

I find all of this truly corrosive of the spirit and values of the game. Teams with the best divers are rewarded with victory, and the more honest teams lose because of dodgy refereeing decisions. In comparison, Zizou's act was a momentary act of madness. It had to be punished of course, nobody can condone violence. But losing ones temper is something that everybody understands and can empathise with. The deliberate attempt to provoke, cheat, and win through dodgy refereeing decisions - practiced to some extent by all teams - is what will ultimately destroy the popular appeal of the game.

[patricia o'hagen]

Love the song. Even though Zidane "lost it", and given the fact that the Italians tried to take him out twice during the first half, What happened is understandable. Where was the referee in the first half? At the end of the day people will remember the enforcer tactics and the racist remarks of that "winning" team and Zidane's coupe de boule as a man's choice forhis honor. Love the French for seeing that.

Pat O'Hagen
New york, USA

[Deborah]

'but most of all we hope that it has made Zidane laugh'

that last quote gave me great pleasure, I have really enjoyed too your posts on the Zidane polemic

Have only just been sent some 'joke' videos on said subject which will forward, am sure you have already seen them but just in case!

Rebel image? I'm all for it, can't stand all the moralising, les enfants etc

[Felix]

In the 1998 World Cup, in remarkably similar circumstances, David Beckham kicked out at Diego Simeone after the Argentine midfielder had harassed him all match with both sticks and stones, no doubt abusing his wife Victoria and her apparent lack of direct lineage.

The result: England went crashing out of the competition and Becks became a public hate figure for months, with supporters taking to burning life-size effigies of the player with a noose around his neck.

In the same World Cup, Zidane was sent off in the group stages after stamping on an opposition player during the 4-0 rout of Saudi Arabia. Zidane’s act was one of obvious premeditation and violence; Beckham’s was a naïve, spur-of-the-moment piece of petulance.

The difference: Zizou returned for the latter stages of the competition and scored twice in the final over Brazil to loft France to glory in Paris; England, conversely, lost on penalties in the quarter-finals and Beckham’s image took over a year to recover.

While ZZ’s actions were seen as an act of passion, Beckham’s were dismissed as the actions of a spoilt-brat.

Eight years on, Zizou’s second World Cup red card came in the final, but probably did little to affect the final score-line. If anything, it merely made that night in Munich more fateful for the French side than it already was.

ZZ’s actions were motivated by anger and revenge. They were spur-of-the-moment but came after a lot of bad-mouthing from Marco Materazzi. The head-butt has become the stuff of legend, and ZZ more revered than ever before, but that does not erase the brutal reality that ZZ’s actions were despicable, rash and unprofessional.

FIFA, by punishing MM in equal measure, has effectively condoned ZZ’s actions, which will no doubt lead to children copying his lead all over France – and the world.
The song is, to an extent, doing the same thing, making light and trivial something of huge importance. But it is certainly admirable of the French to finally take a few steps back and laugh at themselves and their failures. Deep down, they know that France were not expected to do well in the World Cup and that the ambrosial play of ZZ made a dream that so nearly came true and which, for a period, bellowed air into an ailing nation.

Working for a pan-European sports TV channel in Paris covering the Tour de France throughout July, it was definitely testing, as an Englishman, to have to brave the storm of French patriotic fervour during the World Cup – which spilled out onto the streets with the tooting of horns until the early hours following each victory.

The original Cauet song – Zidane, il va marquer – was a favourite for the guys next door in production, and at roughly 27-minute intervals, was played at full volume over loud-speakers throughout the days leading up to the final – much to the merriment of the French contingent in the office.

Naturally, things went pretty quiet following the defeat (just as they did when London won the Olympic bid…), but then the remix came along and all that changed!

Anyway, with reference to Edward Johns’ comments about cheating in the sport: he’s right, it has reached shocking levels. But play-acting and diving are about as synonymous to football as doping is to cycling – as the latest series of scandals to hit the sport can testify.

I still enjoy cycling as a sport, immensely – and just as I will never give up on football, I will always tune into cycling races throughout the year. In both cases, however, it is a question of altering your expectations.

Finally, revenons a nos moutons: it’s funny how a player of Zidane’s status can become even better accepted in France (did you see Chirac jumping on the bandwagon? Not that he had much choice, mind…) after an act of violence that would see you behind bars on most high-streets. Meanwhile, the actions of Wayne Rooney (sent off against Portugal) and Beckham have merely hastened their fall from grace.

But the point is this: Zidane can afford to be forever remembered for his passionate, nay violent, head-butt for throughout his career he achieved on – and off – the pitch something that will always allude our English prima donnas: success, humility and class.

I, like so many others, can easily forgive such a legend, but I find it hard giving the time of day to the likes of Beckham, Rooney and that Portuguese trickster Christiano Ronaldo.

[Antoine Cuny]

This "french touch" was for me the most pleasant action of football I had ever seen because... it was looking like rugby!
Merci Zizou~ :-)

[eMDe]

being brave admitting a mistake, is something that makes me - always, proud of Zidane.
Terima Kasih, Zizou! (Merci, Zizou!)