12 best and worst Olympics theme songs, ranked
Like competing on the balance beam or sprinting to the finish line, writing a song can be an Olympic-caliber feat. Every two years, an artist is called on to record a tune that will capture the mood of the Summer or Winter Olympic Games. We look back at the best and worst:
12 Survival Muse
At the time of its release in 2012, BBC radio host Jon Holmes memorably compared this London Olympics theme to “an orchestra falling down some stairs” and the “noise of a rhino knocking a wall down.” The English rockers’ unbearable hodgepodge of crashing drums, dramatic strings and strained vocals may be the Games’ worst official song.
11 Rise Katy Perry
In retrospect, it’s ironic how a song about rising from the bottom actually marked the fall of the once-reigning pop queen. A year before releasing the garbage fire that is her Witness album, Perry recorded this pedestrian number for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, which sounds like a retread of her past hits Wide Awake and Unconditionally. Like the parachute she drags around in the visually ambitious music video, she’s weighed down by Rise’s plodding melody and faux-inspiring lyrics.
10 Barcelona Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé
Barcelona is a passable duet, taken off the Queen frontman’s 1988 joint album of the same name with the Spanish opera star. While her sublime soprano compliments his elastic vocals, it’s doubtful that this classical love song lit a fire under any athletes’ feet at the 1992 Summer Games.
9 Oceania Björk
The Icelandic trailblazer blends rippling synths and whirring siren calls on this nautical ballad, written for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. But it’s hardly workout playlist material, even if the video’s briny Neptune imagery fits right into Björk’s unusual oeuvre.
8 Bang the Drum Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado
By no stretch of the imagination is
Bang the Drum a lyrical masterpiece. (Sample lyrics: “From the East / From the West / Each of us trying our best.”) And yet, the 2010 Winter Olympics anthem is a refreshingly upbeat addition to the Games’ often down-tempo catalog, fueled by a peppy drum solo and unabashedly cheesy chorus about dreaming big.
7 Let Everyone Shine Insooni
It’s this year’s theme for the Winter Olympics Torch Relay. While it’s packed with enough fire-related phrases to last until the 2020 Games, its catchy, feelgood chorus will be burned into your brain all month long.
6 A Chance for Heaven Christopher Cross
Cross’ synth-driven contribution to the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles is a bit of a puzzler: It’s subtitled “Swimming Theme,” and yet its whole chorus revolves around climbing mountains. Regardless, this blissful slice of ’80s nostalgia will make you want to break out your neon-bright windbreaker and leg warmers for an Olympic-size dance party.
5 Someday Flipsyde
Hip-hop artists have mostly been passed over when it comes to penning Olympics tunes. But NBC made this Oakland group an exception when it picked Someday as the theme for the 2006 Winter Games — a solid choice, given its motivational lyrics about overcoming adversity and unique combination of rap and Spanish guitar.
4
You and Me
Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman
This sedate duet could run the risk of putting you to sleep, with faint, almost childlike vocals from the Chinese singer and English soprano. But its message of unity — “You and me, from one world / We are family” — makes this 2008 Beijing anthem one of the Olympics’ most unexpectedly moving themes a decade later.
3
Hand in Hand
Koreana
It’s nearly impossible to not be won over by the charms of South Korean band Koreana on this soaring throwback from the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, with earnest vocals and pulsing synths worthy of Olympics gold.
2
The Power of the Dream
Céline Dion
The Canadian icon gave two definitive performances of this rousing ballad at the 1996 Summer Olympics: first at the opening ceremony, where her silky vibrato and formidable belt were on full display; and later at the Games’ closer, where she was joined by some 600 children from Atlanta for a more earnest, euphonious rendition. Either way, you can’t go wrong.
1
One Moment in Time
Whitney Houston
The gold standard by which all Olympics theme songs should be judged. Also written for the 1988 summer event, this top-5 hit perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the Games: giving one’s all, facing the pain and ultimately becoming “more than I thought I could be.” But it’s also an expertly constructed pop anthem, which gradually builds to a trumpeting finish as Houston belts, “I will be free.” It’s a knockout vocal performance that only she was capable of giving, and one that elevates this from a rousing torch song to a timeless classic.