K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" named Official World Cup 2010 Theme Song

From CBC:

A remixed version of Wavin' Flag, a song by Somalia-born Canadian hip hop artist K'Naan, is the official song of a World Cup trophy tour currently traversing through Africa.

Wavin' Flag: The Celebration Mix is a remix of the original track off K'Naan's third album, Troubadour, released earlier this year.

K'Naan, currently on tour in Africa with the World Cup trophy, was born Keinan Abdi Warsame in Somalia in 1978 before moving to the U.S. and relocating to Toronto. His name, K'naan, means "traveller" in the Somali language...


It is no secret that I don't particularly enjoy the game of soccer. It's horrendous to watch for long stretches, the diving makes me sick to my stomach, and as my buddy Rosco put it: "How can anyone watch something where the most exciting play is a guy missing the net?" Furthermore, Chuck Klosterman, in his brilliant George Will vs. Nick Hornby, makes the most compelling argument for why soccer sucks.

But with that being said, I'm a sucker for events in which the best in the world are competing, particularly when I'm mercifully subjected to that particular competition only once every four years. Case in point: Olympic Boblsedding.

But next year's World Cup might be a different story. Because having local phenom K'naan prominently involved will certainly help to keep me tuned in.

To say that this is a career-altering break is an epic understatement. The kid has come a long way since playing in the basement of The Drake Hotel during NxNE 2005 (one of the all-time tour-de-force acoustic hip hop performances, for the record).