They may not have converted their first Emmy Daytime nomination, but composer brothers Salim and Sulaiman Merchant have found other ways to make India proud, this time on a much bigger level with the duo reportedly having been invited to compose a song for the upcoming FIFA World Cup as part of the official compilation (Thanks to Jayaram, Ankur and Easwar for pointing out that its not the anthem as I thought earlier). Some of the people who have in the past been bestowed this honour include biggies such as Vangelis, Youssou N’Dour and Ricky Martin. Salim-Sulaiman are the first Indians to achieve this feat. The duo will also have the opportunity of performing at the opening and closing ceremonies of the World Cup. They would be performing alongside R&B artist Loyisa Bala and Kenyan singer Eric Waninaner. The official anthem for this year’s World Cup is Canada-based Somalian hip hop artist K’Naan‘s Wavin’ Flag.
Salim-Sulaiman have had an experience at composing anthem-like songs with Chak De India. And they have been having a good run in the recent past. But all their scores have been Indian, and I am yet to hear anything on the world music front from them. Just hope that they churn out a memorable composition for the World Cup, not ending up Indianizing/Bollywoodizing the whole thing! Below is the video of the 2002 World Cup anthem composed by Vangelis, my favourite composition for any FIFA World Cup yet.
I am having fun reading your posts. Perhaps unrelated but just read an interesting fact, were you aware that 6,352 soccer players have thus far featured in Fifa World Cup teams, one quarter (1,545) of whom actually never were on the field.