“Brazil” by Declan McKenna
Hosting of the FIFA World Cup is an endeavor which governments of the world take very seriously. For more developed nations this isn’t particularly an issue, as for the most part they will already have the infrastructure to hold said event. But for third world countries like Brazil, where the World Cup was played in 2014, such is not the case. As such, the Brazilian government was criticized for prioritizing the tournament, which is a costly affair, over the welfare of its people. And such criticism stands as the basis of the verses of this song (“Brazil”), with this piece by the way being heavily poetic in nature.
At the same time all of this was going down, FIFA was also caught up in a corruption scandal. One of the figures who was eventually held liable was Sepp Blatter, who was presiding over the organization at the time. And Declan McKenna has revealed that in part, that’s who he’s referring to in the chorus. Apparently, the intended point is supposed to be something like even people like Blatter in these high, lofty positions can be just as grimy as the next man.
As for the rest of the chorus, the singer is theoretically, beyond Blatter, criticizing such unscrupulous businessmen in general. As you probably already know, Brazil is a country that takes football (i.e. soccer) very, very seriously. But it is also a nation of major wealth disparity. So while poor Brazilians were getting sacked from their homes and all types of sh*t in the name of accommodating the World Cup, by design those at the higher end of the spectrum would rather be lining their already-stuffed pockets.
Takeaway
So conclusively, as has been alluded to previously in this blog, the United Kingdom is perhaps the most-humanitarian nation as far as the music industry is concerned. At the time this song was dropped, Declan McKenna wasn’t an established musician. But still, something spoke to his heart concerning all that was going down in Brazil.
Well actually, a lot of people were disturbed by what the Brazilian government was doing in perpetration for the World Cup, as said actions made international headlines. But McKenna took things a step further and in the process came out with a hit song.
Declan McKenna and “Brazil”
Declan is a singer from England who is also recognized as a political activist.
“Brazil”, which was released on 4 December 2015, was Declan’s maiden single. Also, as things stand, the track is his signature work. Simply put, it is his most successful work to date. This is the only McKenna track to have thus far been certified, i.e. achieving BPI gold status. Additionally, it also managed to appear on three Billboard charts stateside. Furthermore, it appeared on charts in France, Japan and Ireland (the latter in 2022).
McKenna wrote this song himself. He was an unsigned, up-and-coming musician at the time he composed “Brazil”. Actually he was just 16 years old when he penned this protest song. The tune went on to be well received on the music platform Bandcamp.
Whereas “Brazil” was self-released at first, eventually it went on to be backed by Columbia Records. This is the major record label that also put out the album it is featured on. The said album is 2017’s “What Do You Think About the Car?”.
This track’s producer is Max Marlow, a regular collaborator of Declan McKenna.
