UP TO NO. 1

anthem Three Lions is leading the race to top the Official Singles Chart this Friday as Gareth Southgate’s England prepare for their World Cup semifinal against Croatia. Officialcharts.com said the song, performed by comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds, had shot up from 24 to No. 1 at the halfway stage on yesterday’s chart update. It has accumulated 24,000 downloads and 2.6 million audio streams since Friday. Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) was originally written for Euro 96 – the last time England qualified for the semifinals of a major tournament – and hit the No. 1 spot twice. A reworked version with new new lyrics for the 1998 World Cup in France also spent three weeks at the summit.