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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems“Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home)” is an England supporters’ song written for Euro 96. Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds brought in football fans and comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner to help capture the mix of old disappointment and new hope that follows England into a tournament. Its refrain is an expression of anticipation—not a claim that England had already won.
Who wrote “Three Lions,” and why?
The Football Association approached Ian Broudie, frontman of the Lightning Seeds, to write an official theme for the European Championship hosted in England in 1996. Broudie wanted David Baddiel and Frank Skinner involved. The two were football fans and presenters of Fantasy Football League; they joined Broudie as writers and performers. Official Charts says the song was commissioned for the FA’s official Euro 96 compilation album, The Beautiful Game.
The title comes from the three lions on England players’ shirts. The song’s viewpoint was deliberately that of supporters rather than a boastful team anthem. As Baddiel put it: “We decided to write it from the point of view of what it was like to be an England fan,” he told Official Charts.
What does “Football’s coming home” mean?
The song looks back to England’s 1966 World Cup victory and contrasts it with the decades of disappointment that followed. Its phrase “thirty years of hurt” gives the supporters’ hope a history: they remember a major triumph, but they also know England has fallen short before.
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The refrain—“It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming, football’s coming home …”—turns that uncertainty into a chant of anticipation. It expresses the hope that football’s homecoming might happen; it does not say England had already won Euro 96. The song’s appeal lies in holding both feelings at once: the familiar expectation of disappointment and the willingness to believe that this time could be different.
Can you read the full lyrics?
The sources available here do not verify an authorized source reproducing the complete lyrics, so this article does not reproduce them. For the full text, use a licensed lyrics service or an authorized release rather than relying on an unverified transcription. The brief refrain quoted above is the short passage identified in Official Charts’ retrospective.
Rank #2
- Single, Import
When did “Three Lions” come out?
The original was released in May 1996 for the European Championship in England. Official Charts’ retrospective gives the date as 17 May 1996, while the Official Charts song page describes the original release as 20 May. The sources therefore differ on the exact day, but agree on the month and year.
How did the 1996 original and 1998 rerecording differ?
| Version | Release and context | Chart history |
|---|---|---|
| “Three Lions” | Original, released in May 1996 for Euro 96 in England; commissioned for the FA compilation The Beautiful Game. | Went straight to number one in the UK and spent two non-consecutive weeks there, according to Official Charts. |
| “3 Lions ’98” | 1998 rerecording by Baddiel, Skinner and Broudie, released in the context of the 1998 World Cup. | Sold 232,000 copies in its first week in the UK and spent three consecutive weeks at number one, according to Official Charts’ 2016 account. |
The available sources establish the separate 1998 recording and its chart performance, but do not provide a complete line-by-line comparison of the two versions’ lyrics.
Rank #3
- 1 US
- 2 US
- 3 UK
What happened to the song after 1998?
The song returned to number one in the UK in 2018. Sony Music UK reported on 13 July 2018 that this was its third time reaching the top spot. That is a count as of the 2018 report, not a current tally.
Official Charts reported UK sales of 1.566 million copies in its 2016 article. That is a historical total reported at the time, not a current sales figure. Chart positions and sales figures here refer to the UK; they should not be read as worldwide totals.
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Sources
- Official Charts: “Number 1 this week in 1996: Three Lions hits the top”
- Official Charts: “Celebrating football anthem Three Lions…”
- Sony Music UK: “‘Three Lions’ becomes the UK No.1 single for the third time”
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