"Three Lions" is a song by the English comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and the rock band the Lightning Seeds. It was released on 20 May 1996 through Epic Records to mark the England football team's participation in that year's UEFA European Championship, which England was hosting.
The music was written by the Lightning Seeds singer, Ian Broudie, while Baddiel and Skinner—presenters of the football comedy show Fantasy Football League—provided the lyrics. All three provided vocals. The title comes from the England team emblem.
Both the original version of "Three Lions" and the updated "Three Lions '98" reached number one on the UK singles chart. It regularly reappears in the UK singles chart around major football tournaments involving the England team. Its music video was directed by Pedro Romhanyi.
The song has been described as the de facto "anthem" of English football since 1996. Its chorus, with the refrain "It's coming home", has become a popular chant for fans at England games.
Writing The Football Association (FA) asked the Lightning Seeds songwriter, Ian Broudie, to compose a song for the 1996 UEFA European Football Championship. He composed a melody he felt would make a good football chant, and asked the comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, presenters of the football comedy show Fantasy Football League, to write the lyric.Frank Skinner, "Don't blame a slogan for football's failures", in The Times, 22 May 2009 Broudie declined the FA's offer to have football players sing, saying he did not want the song to be "England-istic" or nationalistic. He said it was more about "being a football fan, which, for 90% of the time, is losing".
According to Skinner's autobiography, the original lyric included the line "Butcher ready for war" instead of "Bobby belting the ball". The line was a reference to a notorious World Cup qualifier against Sweden in 1989, when the defender Terry Butcher played despite his head bleeding profusely for much of the match. Baddiel later revealed a handwritten copy of the lyrics on Twitter with "Terry Butcher at war" shown as the replaced lyric. The FA requested the line be changed to avoid suggestions of hooliganism imagery. The "ready for war" motif was later used in the 1998 version of the song, attributed to Paul Ince. The crowd noise in the intro is Brøndby fans recorded by Broudie at Anfield during a UEFA Cup tie in October 1995.
Themes
The title refers to the three lions on the England team crest. The chorus lyric, "it's coming home", reflected the fact that Euro 1996 was the first football competition England had hosted since the 1966 FIFA World Cup. It has evolved to include the concept of the cup returning to England, football's homeland.
The song references players who played in the 1966 World Cup winning team. The references include: "That tackle by Moore": Bobby Moore's tackle of Jairzinho in a 1970 World Cup match against Brazil. "When Lineker scored": Gary Lineker's goal against West Germany in a 1990 World Cup semi-final. "Bobby belting the ball": Bobby Charlton's goal against Mexico in a 1966 World Cup group match. "Nobby dancing": Nobby Stiles dancing with the Jules Rimet Trophy after England won the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
Unlike most football songs, the lyrics speak not of unbounded optimism for victory but instead of how, since England's victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup, every tournament has ended in dashed hopes. However, the failures have not dampened the feeling that England could succeed again ("Three lions on a shirt / Jules Rimet still gleaming / Thirty years of hurt / never stopped me dreaming").Mark Edwards Duckworth Lewis Method's songs about sport" in The Sunday Times, 5 July 2009 Baddiel said the song was about magical thinking: "About assuming we are going to lose, reasonably, based on experience, but hoping that somehow we won't."
Despite the failures of the past, each tournament is greeted with fresh hopes that this might be the year they do it again: "I know that was then, but it could be again", and the song's chorus proclaimed that "It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home" which refers, like the tournament's slogan, "Football comes home", to the invention of the modern game in England. Following England's success at the 2022 Women's Euro, Baddiel said: "I'm very happy to think the song would, in a way, be put to bed."
Reception Mark Roland from Melody Maker wrote, "It has been left to Ian Broudie to come up with a curiously Slade-esque theme to celebrate the impending Championships. Once you have heard it a couple of time, you'll want to mace anyone who sings it." In December 1996, Melody Maker ranked "Three Lions" number 44 in their list of "Singles of the Year", adding, "The best footie anthem of all time, and you know it. Buoyant, blissful and brilliant, until that irritating bit at the end." Tom Ewing, in the Freaky Trigger blog Popular, wrote: "The song (...) is a bluffer’s guide to fandom. (...) [It's also] a superior Britpop song, whatever else it is – too earnest and not as sharp or funny as the genre’s best, but Skinner and Baddiel’s rough voices have a folksy conviction and charm which a lot of minor Britpop bands lacked, and the Lightning Seeds could always sell a sappy tune."
Commercial reception The Britpop phenomenon was at its peak in 1996, and the Lightning Seeds were one of its leading acts, so their involvement gave the song very wide appeal. It reached number one on the singles chart, and as England progressed to the semi-finals, stadiums around the country echoed to the sound of fans singing the song after English victories over Scotland, the Netherlands and Spain. It was so popular that even other teams liked it. England faced Germany in the semi-finals, and Jürgen Klinsmann said later that the Germans were singing the song themselves on the way to the stadium, and the German team and the crowd sang the song as they paraded the trophy on the Römer balcony in Frankfurt. The single as a result reached number 49 on the German Singles Chart. Broudie said he was shocked to hear German fans singing the song after beating England at Euro 96. The song was later sung by Germany fans during their team's first appearance at the new Wembley in 2007.
The original version still receives regular airplay in England around the time of major international football tournaments. It has been adopted as a terrace chant and is occasionally sung by fans at England international matches today. When it was sung by England fans at the 2006 World Cup after England took the lead against Paraguay, the commentator John Motson said, "As football songs go, 'Three Lions' is certainly the best." The song has sold 1.6 million copies in the UK as of June 2018.
The song reached number one on the UK singles chart again in 2018 following England reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with the line "it's coming home" featuring heavily on social media. In doing so, it became the first song in history to have four separate stints at number one in the UK. By the following week, following England's semi-final defeat by Croatia, and elimination from the tournament, the single had fallen to number 97, setting what was at the time a record for the fastest ever descent from the top of the charts.
Music video Pedro Romhanyi directed the music video. Romhanyi said that while Skinner and Baddiel are comedians, they took the recording seriously, as "this is not about making a pop video; it's about doing something that's good for football". Baddiel recalled that Romhanyi insisted that the music video feel "homely", opening with Skinner and Baddiel making tea while watching television at home.
The video also features archival footage and images of the referenced 1966 and later teams, featuring, for example, Bobby Moore, Nobby Stiles, and Gary Lineker. The contemporary pub scene was filmed at the Queen of the Isle in London, which was demolished in 2004. The pub scene includes a cameo by the 1966 team member Geoff Hurst, who was the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
Track listing "Three Lions" – 3:44 "Three Lions" (Jules Rimet extended mix) – 6:14 "Three Lions" (karaoke version) – 3:45
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (1996)PeakpositionEurope (Eurochart Hot 100) 8Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40) 27Israel (IBA) Search "Three Lions" for Israeli chart history.36 Chart (2002)PeakpositionEurope (Eurochart Hot 100) 58UK Singles (OCC) 16 Chart (2006)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 9 Chart (2008)Peakposition Chart (2010)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 10
Chart (2014)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 27 Chart (2018)PeakpositionIreland (IRMA) 65UK Singles (OCC) 1 Chart (2021)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 4 Chart (2022)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 20 Chart (2024)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 8 Chart (2026)PeakpositionUK Singles (OCC) 3
Year-end charts Chart (1996)PositionEurope (Eurochart Hot 100) 92UK Singles (OCC) 7 Chart (2006)PositionUK Singles (OCC) 166
Certifications
"3 Lions '98"
England lost in a penalty shoot-out against Germany in 1996, so the song's lyrics rang true once again. It was subsequently re-recorded with different lyrics (under the title "3 Lions '98") as an unofficial anthem for England's 1998 World Cup campaign (unlike in 1996, when it was the "official song of the England football team") and landed the number-one spot in the singles chart for a second time, beating the official England song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World?" by England United and the other unofficial England song "Vindaloo" by Fat Les to the top spot by eight places.
This version of the song begins with the sound of stadium crowds singing the original chorus. It then samples Jonathan Pearce's commentary of the decisive penalty miss by England's Gareth Southgate in a shoot-out with Germany, where England were eliminated at the semi-final stage. Pearce's commentary of earlier rounds of the tournament was also used later in the song.
While the 1996 "Three Lions" song drew on various memorable moments from the previous 30 years, the 1998 version reflected on the Euro 96 tournament and its entry alongside previous disappointments, as well as the team's performance in qualifying for the 1998 World Cup. The verse mentioning specific players focused this time on the then-current England squad:
Paul Ince – "Ince ready for war" – his performance against Italy in a crucial qualifier for that year's World Cup Paul Gascoigne – "Gazza good as before" – the long-awaited return of his 1990 World Cup form in Euro 96, particularly his goal against Scotland Alan Shearer – "Shearer certain to score" – with five goals, he had been the top scorer of Euro 96, despite a poor run of form in internationals before the tournament Stuart Pearce – "And Psycho screaming" – his primal celebration after scoring a penalty in the Euro 96 quarter-final shoot-out against Spain, which lifted the burden he had felt after failing to score in the semi-final shoot-out at the 1990 World Cup
Amid much controversy, neither Gascoigne nor Pearce were selected for England's 1998 World Cup squad, which was not announced until some time after the song had been recorded.
As well as a karaoke version of the new song, the single featured a song called "Tout est Possible" (French for "Anything is Possible") as a B-side. The song was largely composed of a recurring chorus, samples from commentators and pundits, and the occasional short verse. It also started with a French speech sample referring to "La Coupe du Monde" (The World Cup).
1998 video